It was yet another highlight-laden bird week here on the Cape and Islands, and indeed in all of Eastern Massachusetts thanks to Saturday’s spring storm, which coincided with the last big push of May migrants. I’ll sort through the songbirds, seabirds, and shorebirds who descended upon the region before, during, and after the storm. I’ll end with some old business I didn’t get to last week – the minor matter of an apparent first ever breeding record for the Cape.
Before I get to the storm birds, so many storm birds, I need to mention one last big push of migrant songbirds last Wednesday. Once again, birders who made the effort to get to Race Point before dawn were rewarded with thousands of migrating birds arriving off the ocean, led by an astounding 5800 Cedar Waxwings, nearly tripling the previous state high count. Plus over 50 Eastern Kingbirds, nearly 300 Blue Jays, and over 100 Bobolinks, an odd blackbird of grasslands that winters in Argentina. At least 13 species of warbler came in off the water, including 54 Blackpoll Warblers headed for northern spruce forests, and 9 Blackburnian Warblers, a spring showstopper with a fiery orange throat.
By Friday, birders were watching the predicted storm track and wind direction and planning their storm birding attack. A weird low pressure system had formed over Canada and tracked southeast into our region. Strong easterly storms in May can bring all manner of offshore waifs within sight of land, and you never know who might turn up on a beach to wait out the winds.
Race Point was the place to be in the teeth of the storm, for the crazy few – literally three people - willing to make the trek and battle the winds. They managed to document a who’s who of rare offshore birds, including a South Polar Skua, a brutish predatory seabird of the other hemisphere, a rare flight of dozens of Arctic Terns, also just in from Antarctica, assorted petrels and shearwaters, a Northern Fulmar, a Red Phalarope, a stunning sandpiper that winters well offshore, and a Pacific Loon, the latter now a ho hum year round resident at Race Point.
As usual, First Encounter Beach in Eastham was the place to be after the storm passed and the winds swung west. There, birders enjoyed a sunny Sunday morning with seabirds streaming past – Leach’s and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels pattering and fluttering by, some behind the parking lot, three species of shearwaters, a couple of rare Sabine’s Gull’s, gorgeous tundra nesting gulls of open ocean, and another Red Phalarope.
With the exception of the usual late flycatcher stragglers, I suspect that big movement at the Race last Wednesday was the last hurrah of the May migrants, as no similar numbers have been reported since. Now that June is here, the migration party is pretty much over, and it’s time to focus on our breeding birds. Speaking of which, there is that first breeding record…
Prothonotary Warblers have been trying to nest in Massachusetts for almost 150 years, but in the early days they encountered modest setbacks in the form of being shot by ornithologists wanting them as museum specimens. Dating back to the late 19th century, there are still less than five serious nesting attempts by this absurdly bright yellow warbler of southern swamps. But back on May 20th, an anonymous eBird user in Brewster reported that a pair was nesting in a birdhouse attached to their house, complete with a photo of the female sticking out of the box - unlike most other warblers, Prothonotaries nest in cavities.
I haven’t heard any follow up since, but I hope these crazy birds settle down and have kids. They already cleared the biggest hurdle for a young family on the Cape by securing that very affordable accessory dwelling unit.
