Birding on Cape Cod is wonderful just now. Lots of migrating Buteos and Kestrels. Shorebirds and marshbirds are displaying and beginning to nest. Seaducks abound, with Eider, Oldsquaw and Scotor, both surf and common in great abundance. Songbirds have returned in good number and varieties are seen at the established feeders. This is a good time before leaf out to see many smaller birds otherwise hidden except for their song.
A few Great Blue Herons overwintered (there's still one in Oyster Pond, Chatham, saw it yesterday, again and another in Ryder's Cove) as have the Egrets but I had a Redtail Hawk sitting on a cottontail in my front yard one morning and the Cardinals, Doves and Downy Woodpeckers are plentiful.
I was watching a friend's feeder the other day: Tufted Titmouse, Chickadee, English Sparrow, White Throated Sparrow, White Breasted Nuthatch, Red Breasted Nuthatch, and Goldfinches. A nice mix with nary a Bluejay in sight. The advantage of screening around the feeders.
The scream of hawks is often heard outside my door here in Chathamport. Usually the Marsh Hawks are fairly quiet but the Red Tails make their presence known from treetop and tower.
The spring migration has begun and the night is filled with the sounds of owls listening for their mates and the sky is filling with the wings of Buzzards following the shoreline north. Just had four fly over Ryder's cove about ten minutes ago.
Did I mention that my friend above with the feeder had an albino goldfinch
(whitefinch?) all last summer. A strange and wondrous thing to see it fly
with a small flock across ones path; like a single snowflake out of season.
Which reminds me of one of the most startling sights I've beheld on the water in the last decade. At the first touch of blue dawn one morning a small flock of egrets appeared from nowhere out of the darkness and flew overhead almost within reach of where I stood in my boat. And then they disappeared back into the darkness again, like a snow squall. And while I stood awash with the wonder of it, a half dozen Great Blue Herons appeared like the egrets, passed close by and disappeared too. Too close. Too unexpected.
Just spotted a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks on the radio antennas near my
house, so I guess the northerly migration has begun! Things'll start picking
up now and soon the sounds of redwing blackbirds will wake us up every morning.
Spring's here! 
FLASH...Just heard the first Osprey of the season and so went outside
to watch a little of the mating swoops! April 14, 1999. If you wanna see,
they're usually on the RCA towers at Ryder's Cove ( in sight as I write
this ). Good birding! Remember, in the summer, the Cape is alive with the
combinaton of woods, marsh AND shoreline birdlife. Make sure to come down
a check us out. If you need some help looking around or getting started
take a look at some guides OR Contact
me through Email at birding@capecodoutdoors.com
or snailmail at:
Cape Cod Outdoors, P.O. Box 591, N. Chatham, MA 02650
More to come as I figure it out. Check back.
This page updated 6/03/99.
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This page was created by Michael
Eichenseer.