Hi all, After appearing at 12:10, the Sandwich Tern was seen in the area for the next 50 minutes or so. It was last seen by myself and Pat Palladino flying out of a large flock of COTE over the water, although it had done this earlier and returned. A survey of the area with Menachem Goldstein and his mother (great meeting you guys!) around 5:00 showed no Sandwich Tern, although a Roseate Tern with a red bill base sitting with the same group of terns was nice. Menachem had mentioned getting brief looks at a large tern at Jones Beach just a little earlier. I hadn't heard of any recent Royal Tern sightings in the area, so it may well have been the Sandwich. Another check of the skimmer colony around 6:00 PM revealed no unusual birds.
3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (all starting their 2nd cycle) were on the beach amongst the regulars. Also there was a gull that seemed to be a tiny Great Black-backed. Photos of this bird and some other gulls from the flock can be seen here: https://plus.google.com/photos/115534342141361703558/albums/5898385256537360561 eBird checklist with photos of the Sandwich Tern here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14618549 Best, Brendan Fogarty -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
