Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 13:16:25 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tyler Bell Subject: Bridled Tern? pix, 9/19/03, STMA Comments: To: md-smas@yahoogroups.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Jane Kostenko and I spent the better part of Friday morning clearing = downed trees from our yard and a couple of neighbors yards. We were very = fortunate in that none of the trees fell on our house, just in the yard. = Others were less fortunate. My internet connection didn't come back up = until yesterday late afternoon (from what coworkers are saying) hence the = late post. So, on Friday, around 10 a.m., Jane and I decided to ditch our responsibili= ties and head toward the water to see what might be lingering. We first = headed down to Pt. Lookout where we were denied access. Then we tried to = go down Cornfield Harbor Rd. where the road was impassible. Jane suggested = Elms Beach so we headed down there. The park was closed but we parked at = the gated entrance like we do during the CBC and walked the half mile down = to the water arriving around 11 a.m.. The beach there is angled such that = you are facing almost NE. We set up so that we were basically facing due = east with the sun slightly to our right. Immediately we noticed a steady = stream of birds headed south. There was a brown sediment line close to = shore which went out about 100 yards or so. There is a channel marker at = about the edge of this line. Some terns, mostly Caspian and Royal with the = occasional Forster's were wandering within the shore side of the marker. = There were also groups of cormorants periodically and one group of 5 Brown = Pelicans. Then, a dark winged tern came by. We looked at the underwing pattern and = noticed that the trailing edge of the primaries and secondaries was dark = but the primaries did not have an extensive amount of dark on them. It was = pretty much restricted to the outer tips. The tail was deeply forked = though the inner rectrices seemed to be fairly dark. At first, we thought = it was a Sooty Tern due to the darkness of the tail but the underwing = pattern indicated Bridled. Over the course of our stay until about 12:30 = p.m. there were about 12 terns matching the above description. There were = 2 birds that had a more extensive amount of dark on the underwing = primaries, almost forming a triangle, indicating Sooty Tern. We were able = to capture some footage of one of the terns which ventured slightly closer = to shore than most. I grabbed some stills from the video and have posted = them on the web site below. Go to Photos then Bridled Tern. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/md-smas/ If you are a member of the md-smas group, you will have access to the = photos if you have filled out a Yahoo profile. If you are not a member but = would like to see the photos, I'd be happy to send them. The five images = are less than 300K total. If you have not filled out a profile, please let = me know and I'll send you a profile request. If you look closely at the images, you will notice the flared, deeply = notched tail, the dark upper wing and the white nape. If this bird is not = a Bridled Tern, I'd love to know what it is! Any comments are welcome. We = were unable to get any footage of the Sooty Terns :( When we first arrived, the tropical terns were coming by every few = minutes. By the time we left, there had not been another one for at least = five minutes. I don't know how we lucked into such a flurry and how other = observers further north had lower numbers. Perhaps they were returning = from the Patuxent River? Tyler Bell bell@acnatsci.org California, Maryland Wave that flag...wave it wide and high! Grateful Dead, U.S. Blues =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =========================================================================