There are worse places to be on a late summer or early fall weekend than Cape Cod, especially if you’re after birds. The entire peninsula from Cuttyhunk Island to Monomoy and up the outer cape through Cape Cod National Seashore is a shorebird haven as well as a migrant trap for songbirds headed south down the Atlantic Coast. The waters off the cape aren’t too shabby for birding either, with seabirds galore to be had on pelagic birding trips.
New bird festivals are born every year, and the areas in and around the national parks are well represented. The Cape Cod Bird Festival will celebrate its third year later in September. Birders have scored right around 150 birds in each of the festival’s first two years. With field trips all over Cape Cod and one pelagic tour, this year promises to beat the 150 mark.
Seabirds have been putting on a show for the last month around the cape. The Brookline Bird Club hosted an “extreme” pelagic trip in late August that ventured more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean south of Cape Cod. The two-day trip out to the Atlantis Canyon area and back produced hundreds of shearwaters and storm-petrels, a few White-tailed Tropicbirds, and dozens of phalaropes. The pelagic tour during the festival won’t make it out to the continental shelf, but plenty of good seabirds are still expected.
Just looking no more than 200 meters out to sea from Race Point last Friday, David Hollie reported thousands of shearwaters flying past during a period of strong northeast winds. In a one-hour period, he recorded 104 Great Shearwaters, 46 Cory’s Shearwaters, six Manx Shearwaters, and two Sooty Shearwaters. That’s the kind of waterbird migration that keeps a seasoned seawatcher’s clicker-fingers in shape.
Among the leaders and speakers at the Cape Cod Bird Festival this year will be author and world-famous birder Richard Crossley, who has also signed up to be a leader on the next Brookline Bird Club pelagic on September 26-27. Crossley is a remarkably entertaining speaker and guide, so the dull periods on the pelagic passage should be a breeze with him on board, provided you aren’t prone to seasickness.
The festival is September 18-20, 2015. The official website has all of the registration information. If you find yourself at Cape Cod National Seashore that weekend, join the birding fun. Even if you miss that weekend (and you don’t have the stomach for two days at sea), pick up a bird guide at the national seashore's Salt Pond Visitor Center and see what you can find. Thousands of Common and Roseate Terns could be waiting on the beach just for you!
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