Peter Burke reported a possible Arctic Tern at Boulder Res. so I drove over to get a look. It's a juvenile plumaged Arctic Tern feeding actively with fifteen or so Bonaparte's Gulls on Boulder Res.. They were all flying into a stiff wind (50 mph) so were basically flying in place giving me an opportunity to study pretty well as they fed. That being said they were never closer than three hundred yards. This tern had white secondaries that contrasted with the gray of the forewing. On a couple of occasions I thought I could make out a narrow dark bar along the trailing edge of the primaries, but the rest of the primaries were pale. There appeared to be carpel bars but they were much fainter than a juvenile Common bird and often weren't noticeable. The tail was forked and was white and contrasted with the gray of the back.
The forehead was white and contrasted sharply with the black nape and ear coverts. Thanks to David Dowell for letting me know. JWV -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/000601d11cd0%2470800b30%2451802190%24%40peregrinevideo.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
