New Bird IDs in Provincetown

When Katherine and I planned our visit to Provincetown, I hoped to see some birds that I hadn’t seen before. I was not disappointed.

On the ferry ride from Boston to Provincetown, I snapped photos of a Northern Gannet and a Great Shearwater as they flew by the boat. However, my Northern Gannet (juvenile) was pretty fuzzy so in the interests of actually knowing what one looks like, I found one from Wikimedia Commons.)

Flying above Katherine’s uncle’s house was a raptor. When I identified it later, I learned it was a Broad-winged Hawk. (Again, my picture was clear enough for identification but too out of focus to share 😳. Below is a photo of the Broad-winged Hawk from Wikimedia Commons.)

During our walk on the Provincetown Causeway, Katherine and I saw Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.

The Ruddy Turnstone was also a new bird identification seen on our Causeway walk.

One of my favorite names for a bird was the Laughing Gull.

The Laughing Gull earned its name from its call, but we didn’t hear one. You can hear a brief clip here at Wikimedia Commons. (It’s labeled under the Laughing Gull’s scientific name Larus Atricilla.)

Surrounding Provincetown is Cape Cod National Seashore. There I viewed two new birds, the Eastern Kingbird and the Gray Catbird. The Eastern Kingbirds I saw looked like a mix of juveniles and adults. The juveniles were doing that typical juvenile thing: “When’s dinner?”

(click on a picture below to see a larger view.)

The Gray Catbird is also named for its vocalizations, however, again, I didn’t hear this one make any sound.

I saw Northern Cardinals near Katherine’s uncle’s home. A juvenile could reliably be seen in her uncle’s beautiful and productive garden while an adult was occasionally seen in the trees.

The last new bird I saw was the Blue Jay. I’ve seen California Scrub Jays and Steller’s Jays but this was an exciting new bird for me. I saw one only once and the bird was perched on a chimney with its back to me. I was able to get just a couple of pictures before it flew off. Still, I could tell this was a bird I hadn’t seen before.

And, again, just so we can see what they truly look like, here is an image from Wikimedia Commons.

I was so hoping to see one of these again, but I saw it on one of our last days of our visit.

During our seven day visit, we saw and identified eleven new birds. Very cool!