Erratic, swirling flocks of flying gulls look like a Hitchcock film. They're actually just catching bugs.

The hummingbirds of summer.

As we round the corner of mid-summer, with Labor Day now dimly visible at the horizon, it’s time you got serious about shorebirds.

You may not see hundreds of shearwaters and other seabirds, but it’s always worth getting out in a boat.

Predicting this South Pacific seabird’s appearance in the state was utterly absurd – there had never been a Juan Fernandez Petrel in the entire North Atlantic, and there are maybe 3 records in the South Atlantic, none closer than Brazil.

With the tourist hordes come the birds of summer, and they are worth leaving your home for, and maybe even crossing a town line or two.

Many terns and gulls usually seen on Cape Cod beaches are still nesting in the Arctic. Meantime, those who are on the Cape are nesting in rooftop malls and buildings.

People picture the Cape’s beaches covered in gulls and maybe even terns and shorebirds, likely because their past visits were later in summer. As a result, someone arriving in June or even early July will be struck by how birdless the beaches are.