I n August migrating shorebirds arrive on the Cape Cod beaches and bays to feed on their way further south. Sometimes the numbers can be quite spectacular, especially in places like Monomoy Island and Nauset Marsh. A visitor to Cape Cod with an interest in birds should not miss the chance to observe this phenomena. Less well known is another group of birds, the Shearwaters, that appear off Cape Cod in August. The rest of this column is devoted to a discussion of these interesting birds.
Shearwaters are a pelagic species, spending all their lives at sea, with the exception of nesting.
They winter in the southern hemisphere and spend the summer in the northern hemisphere. They are popularly known as tube-noses because of their ability to drink salt water and expel the salt through their nostrils. The latter is distinctly smaller than the first three. The Sooty Shearwaters are uniformly dusky brownish. The Greater Shearwater has a distinct dark cap and white neck, while the Cory's Shearwater has a pale bill and no sharp contrast between the cap and neck.