Jane and I spent most of the day dealing with several trees that fell on our roof. Thankfully not apparent damage other than a few nicked shingles.

Once we finished with that sweaty task, we showered then headed over to the Patuxent River. Our first stop was on the St. Mary's side at Town Creek by Hula's. Not much going on there except a few Forster's Terns and the usual gulls getting washed by the waves at Pt. Patience at the Navy Rec center across the river.

We stopped at various spots along the causeway at Solomons and saw pretty good numbers of Forster's Terns. Then we got in the lee on the south side of Solomons Pier restaurant and immediately found two Black Terns. Eventually there ended up being 7 Black Terns. Jane managed a photo with six of them at once! There was also at least one Sandwich Tern mixed into the flock.

Right around 6:15, the flock all headed upriver into the wind, which was blowing pretty hard, and vanished. As we drove off of the island, we only saw one or two Forster's Terns and nary a Sandwich Tern and hardly any gulls. It's was kind of freaky.

Tyler Bell

California, Maryland