'My heart stopped for a beat': Another flamingo sighting at Cape Cod beach. See the photos

Eric Williams, Cape Cod Times
·2 min read
2

Another flamingo sighting on Cape Cod has stirred birders from their nests.

Avid Cape birder Mary Jo Foti, trips coordinator for the Cape Cod Bird Club, told the Cape Cod Times by email that she saw and photographed an American flamingo at Chapin Beach in Dennis on Monday.

Foti also provided a wonderful narrative of her encounter:

"I waded out and stood on an ever-broadening flat watching as the number of terns, gulls and shorebirds swelled. Though it was hot, there was a cool breeze — I couldn’t have been in a nicer place. I turned to scan the northern edge of the flat once more and the American Flamingo had simply materialized. I never even saw it fly in. I think my heart stopped for a beat. The flamingo continued to move farther out with the receding tide line but fortunately, a handful of birders were able to get there before it disappeared into the shimmer."

Cape birder Mary Jo Foti photographed an American flamingo at Chapin Beach in Dennis on July 15.
Cape birder Mary Jo Foti photographed an American flamingo at Chapin Beach in Dennis on July 15.

An American flamingo was also sighted at Chapin Beach on June 2. In a phone interview with the Cape Cod Times, Mark Faherty, science coordinator for the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, said that he believed the flamingo seen at Chapin on Monday was the same bird spotted there on June 2.

Faherty also sighted the flamingo on Monday after he walked a considerable distance out on the Chapin Beach flats, wading through a waist-deep channel at one point. He also reported that the flamingo was sighted toward the end of the day on Monday at the Bass Hole boardwalk near Grays Beach in Yarmouth Port.

He described a convivial scene at the boardwalk, where birders shared their spotting scopes with onlookers, allowing folks to get a better look at the flamingo.

An American flamingo was seen at Chapin Beach in Dennis on July 15.
An American flamingo was seen at Chapin Beach in Dennis on July 15.

Faherty believes the flamingo may be one of a group of birds that were scattered across the country after Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida in the summer of 2023. Flamingos were seen in at least 14 states, including North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin, perhaps blown north by the powerful storm's winds.

He said there "was no way to know" whether the flamingo's current northerly location could affect its ability to survive as the seasons change. Faherty thinks it is likely that the bird has been in the United States since last August.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the American flamingo "is widely distributed throughout the Caribbean, with breeding populations found in Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas."

Eric Williams, when not solving Curious Cape Cod mysteries, writes about a variety of ways to enjoy the Cape, the weather, wildlife and other subjects. Contact him at ewilliams@capecodonline.com. Follow him on X: @capecast.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Flamingo spotted again on Cape Cod. Here's what we know.