At least 5 Arctic Terns were present today between 1:45 pm and 3:30 pm on the bayside flats. Lifers for me. Well, today I saw multiple field marks on multiple individuals very well. Which hasn't always been the case during the many hours I have spent alone on the flats over the last several years, trying to piece together info garnered from texts, and web postings, etc. So, today I get to count them for the first time, though I have learned enough over the years to know now that I have looked at arctic terns before (just last week for instance) but never been 100% sure. The journey has been very rewarding. A huge shout out to Shai Mitra whose knowledge helped me get it (though I don't believe I've ever birded the flats with him). So, I'm no expert on ageing but from what I've learned there were two first summer type, two 2nd summer type, and 1 adult. Though, a quick look at my (rather poor) photos indicate there were likely 2 adults d/t slight differences in bill color. I was viewing prior to high tide so the birds were in several smaller groups and taking flight periodically, which made getting a firmer number difficult. --
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/[email protected]/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/ --
