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A lanky and mysterious stranger arrived in Provincetown last week, where he is often seen loitering near the famous Boy Beach at the west end. Flamboyantly arrayed in feathers, this visitor has developed quite a following, but it’s not for a drag show at the Post Office Cabaret.

As I write on this coldest day of the season thus far, it seems wise to discuss an indoor birding activity almost universally enjoyed by bird fanciers – backyard bird feeding.

I thought it might have been a female Ring-necked Duck, but a view through my spotting scope showed the characteristic cowlick of a female Tufted Duck, a rare visitor from Europe.

We are overdue for another episode of everyone’s favorite made-up, bird-related, Cape Cod-based award show: the Bird Grammys!

By mid-winter, the prize rare birds have all been established and often settle into a routine.

As this throwback winter plods on, with ice fishers on the ponds and ice floes on the bay, one of the most common questions us bird folks get is “how do birds survive these brutal temperatures?”

Suddenly a big bird rocketed into view – a Peregrine Falcon, death missile of the tidal flats, no doubt hunting the shorebirds.

With just a few days left in 2024, the undisputed bird of the year for Cape Cod was found in Chatham.

Amidst the silent majesty of this cold Christmas morn, I can only assume you are all gathered around the radio, in the warm embrace of kith and kin, waiting to hear the latest results of the local bird counts.

This is one of those cases where a bird in the hand was going to be worth at least two in the bush. We needed a licensed hummingbird bander to catch and examine it.

On Nantucket this week, the birders are all having flashbacks to October of 2012, when Hurricane Sandy famously devastated parts of the East Coast.

It’s Thanksgiving Eve, so I suppose you expect me to dish out the usual stale, leftover poultry puns sandwiched between the same old turkey fun facts. Well, you’re right. So let’s not mince words and get right into to the meat of the topic.

Cory’s are the biggest of our four shearwaters, a group of wind-surfing seabirds who navigate the trackless oceans by smell, riding the wind deflected upwards off waves to effortlessly cover hundreds of miles in search of fish and squid.

Let’s face it, we all woke up this morning with the same question: what’s going on with seabirds right now? I’m glad you asked, because the answer is “a whole helluva lot.”

Another week, another lost flycatcher from some far-flung locale has turned up. This one had been flung further than most, having perhaps started its journey as far away as Argentina.

With an exceedingly rare Gray Kingbird that played hide and seek with birders in Eastham this week, the Cape reclaimed the title of rare bird capital of the region, but sadly this Caribbean visitor kept moving - it was last seen on the 19th at Nauset Light Beach.

Last week’s Vermilion Flycatcher, the briefly famous female photographed at South Cape Beach in Mashpee, turned out to be a one-day wonder, as we birders say – she hasn’t been seen since. Beyond a wayward Western Kingbird that’s still hanging around Peterson Farm in Falmouth, it was a quiet week on the Cape for fall rarities.