Back to the Beach!

We'll see gulls galore at Plymouth Beach on Saturday.

We won't see a beautiful blue sky, though. If it's too cloudy, we won't good pictures - and if it rains, we are in deep trouble!

It was during last year's birdathon that I saw my first Brant. They are sea-going geese, and very cool.

I am DETERMINED to find Caspian Terns again. Can you see them hiding among the gulls?

Thank you  SO MUCH to Karen and Bob, Cheryl and Gene, and Linda and Rob!  If you can believe it, all of Tom's sisters have made very generous donations to our Birthathon for Broadmoor team! Sincere thanks to my St. Barts buddy, Maryann, also.

Thank you for donating to Mass Audubon!

Caspian Terns with Gulls and Common Terns

The massive size of these Caspian Terns can only be appreciated when you see them in comparison with the "normal sized" terns in our area (Common Terns, Roseate Terns, Forster's Terns, Arctic Terns, and even smaller Least Terns and Black Terns). It is also much easier to judge relative size when the birds are standing on the ground rather than flying.

Caspian Terns Common Terns and Various Gulls

 I had a very hard time finding photos that included both large and small terns on the web (although there must be thousands of them), and these are even better because of all the gulls in the group.  Check out the Caspian Tern on the far left that is looking straight up in the air!

Caspian Tern vs Common Tern

This is a closeup of the previous photo.  To me, the Caspian Terns look 4 times the size of Common Terns, which is about right.  The Caspian Tern's wingspan of 4.5 feet is almost twice the Common Tern's 2.5 foot wingspan, but the Caspian Tern weighs about 5 times what a Common Tern weighs.  Overall, the Caspian Tern is about 4X larger than the terns we are accustomed to seeing here in Massachusetts.

Gulls and Terns

Caspian Terns are larger than Laughing Gulls and larger than Ring-billed Gulls.  They are supersized terns, and I think they're super cool birds!

Caspian Tern: A Rare Birdathon Sighting!

See the tern in the above photo that looks even bigger than a gull?  As it turns out, he is bigger than some gulls.  That is a Caspian Tern.  The sighting of a Caspian Tern was one of the the most notable observations of this years Birdathon.

Caspian Terns are very large birds; the largest of the tern species.  They have thick, heavy orange bills with black tips, black wingtips, white undersides, short tail, and black legs and feet.

It is very exciting to have captured photos of TWO very rare species seen during Birdathon 2010 (Marbled Godwit and Caspian Tern).  Unfortunately, our team didn't get credit for seeing Caspian Tern.  We didn't actually "see" a Caspian Tern during birdathon.  I only noticed them when looking at Tom's photos days later.  Luckily, there was one other sighting at Duxbury Beach (which is adjacent to where we were birding).  Can you find two Caspian Terns in the group above?