Greetings!  This weekend I had a few FOY yard birds, one which was very noteworthy.  I heard the first Chipping Sparrows singing on Friday, and heard the first Laughing Gulls announcing their arrival yesterday before I saw them.  Yesterday we had a Wild Turkey come skulking through the yard briefly.  Best of all was a very early ROYAL TERN.  I will be as descriptive as possible, since I know this is very early for seeing one.

This bird was by itself, seen at midmorning in bright light.  When I first saw it (without my bins), my first impression was a Peregrine Falcon!  It was flying very quickly and low over the water, as if it was on a mark coming in fast and low, about to go after a duck or something.  It seemed uniformly to be grayish white in the bright sun.  Then it climbed briefly, braked sharply, and dove at the water.  I saw the water dimple, and I thought "that's odd, it must be just getting a drink".  After that, it flapped very powerfully and proceeded quickly along, but something seemed odd - the wing beat was too slow for a Peregrine!  So I ran to get my bins.  I was surprised to see it was a large tern; it was simply so early (in the season, not the day!) that I was shocked at seeing a large tern in March.

To my good fortune, it was not just passing through and turned around.  I got my scope on it and watched it make several loops around the upper end of Jug Bay.  I think it was foraging for prey, but did not do any plunges.  The water was still very cloudy (muddy) from all the runoff from last week's flooding, and our tides are still very high.  The tern occasionally dove at the water but did not plunge into it, and I did not see it catch anything.  I'm not sure - I think it was getting drinks of water, but it may have been picking up some kind of insect.  In the past, I have seen Laughing gulls in the spring eating some kind of insects over the water when there is a hatch.  They pick the insects off both on the water and in the air, but I don't know what they are eating.  Although early, I would have expected Forster's Tern here, but this bird was clearly larger than a Forster's.

There was a group of 5 Wigeons that it passed closely several times, and it was comparable to them in size.  The id challenge was determining Royal versus Caspian.  After several passes, I concluded Royal based on the following.  Although distant, I was able to see a noticeably forked tail rather than a stubby squarish one, and its primaries were not dark but uniformly very light as it flew.  At the distance (1000-1500 feet), trying to look at the bill's size/shape was not much help.  The light was very bright and not good for color, but I could see the bill was orange-ish.  I think it was probably an adult, since it had distinctly uniform pale white/gray plumage, although I don’t know how long juveniles retain their first winter plumage.  Even at the distance I could see much white in the forehead.  So I think it was a Royal.

It did not vocalize.  After watching it for 3-4 minutes, it flew off down toward the lower end of Jug Bay and out of sight, and did not reappear.  That is all the detail I have.

I have seen Royals at Jug Bay but only a few times before, and they are very uncommon here.  My earliest for a Caspian was last year; I saw a Caspian on April 1.  Caspian sightings are annual here and far more common than Royals, yet I am confident about this bird yesterday.  Unless of course someone happened to get a photo and it is not Royal!

P.S.  The Baltimore Oriole that over-wintered here was seen daily at our feeders up until Friday (March 19th).  I have not seen it since then but hope it has either moved on or no longer needs/wants any seeds to fortify her.  It was an exciting winter and we will miss her here, but Spring has arrived!  It will be interesting to see if she returns next winter.

Regards-
Jeff Shenot
Croom Md