A Living Symphony of Grace and Joy!

Is there anything as beautiful as a tern?

Their every move is grace personified. Just watching them will soothe your soul.

A flock of terns is like a symphony of pure joy.

Even in conflict they appear harmonious.

Terns are poetry in motion.  

 "With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world" 

Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann

Tern Test!

TERN 1

One of the terns in this picture is decidedly different from the rest.  Name that tern!

TERN 2

This tern is in breeding plumage.

TERN 3

This tern is a juvenile.

TERN 4

What is this flying tern"

TERN 5

Can you identify this tern flying?

TERN 6

If you look hard, you'll find one tern in this group is different than the others.  What species is he?

TERN 7


Post a comment with your answers!

Black-bellied Plovers

This is a juvenile Black-Bellied Plover.  Note the bright white belly, brown head, and brown polka-dotted feathers. 

Here is the little guy's Mom.  Of course!


This black and white (or maybe grayish brown) guy is his brother.


This is his sister.  She is brown speckled, but with a reddish belly.  She has a longer tail and black tail feathers.


This grey bird with a facial mask and crew cut is the little bird's cousin.


And this is his Dad!  See how easy it is to recognize Black-bellied Plovers?   Now, can you ID the terns in this photo?  Terns are easy, too!

PS.  I'm joking.  I'm not certain of the ages, sexes, or even the species of any of the birds pictured here!

Black Terns in the Midst of Cape Cod

One of these terns is not like the others.


One (or two) of these terns just doesn't belong!


Can you guess which tern is not like the others?


I hope so cause I don't know how to end this song!  So - what are they?  Not Roseate Terns (unfortunately for the ornithology students that were desperately seeking Roseate Terns at South Beach that day).  Not Fosters Terns or Arctic Terns, either.  What else is there?


Black Terns!  The very tern my son most wanted to see (but these don't count for him because they are juveniles).  Very COOL!!  They are juveniles or non breeding adults, so they are not as black as they can be, granted.  But they are considered rare around here, and we are very lucky we saw them!  There have been other sightings on South Beach throughout the week, so you don't have to take our word that they are there!  (Oh, the birds in question are the ones on either end in this picture.  If you click the photo, there are notes identifying the Black Terns on each flickr image, too.)


This was not an easy ID, but I had to do so much research that now I'm sure I have it right! (As always, I welcome any opposing views and dissenting opinions, though!  I could be making a tremendous blunder!)  There is not a lot of info about Black Terns out there. There were NO images that resembled this bird until I tried searching on "juvenile black tern."  Then I found images galore! (The bird in the middle here.)


I am very proud of the deductive reasoning that led me to look for juvenile black terns, BTW! I figured that since all terns seem to have white heads as juvies, maybe this little guy was a juvie, too. And voila! Page after page of matching pictures appeared like magic!

Anyway, I'm just tickled pink!  Two lifers! A Lesser Black-backed Gull and a bunch of Black Terns all in one day!  These two species are both European stragglers, too.  Both blown across the sea and ending up on Cape Cod the day I was there with a camera!  Better still, they showed up the day Pete was there with a camera!  Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing this now!

The Perfect Day

My son and I returned to South Beach in Chatham on Monday, hoping to see some of the birds we missed last month.  Our second trip was picture perfect in every way!  The weather was as good as it gets; 75 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and nice steady wind blowing the bugs away.  That's right - NO BUGS!  The tide was perfect timed for shore-birding, reaching dead low two hours into our trip.  The island was perfect because there was almost no one there but us. Best of all, the birds on South Beach were perfect: exactly what we hoped to see this trip, and much more.  My pictures weren't perfect, unfortunately.  The good news is that my son was taking pictures too, and his images are extraordinary!


I'll start posting my son's images tomorrow.  In the meantime, this post will serve as a preview of coming attractions.  The first amazing bird we saw was the one I most wanted to see; the American Oystercatcher.  You have to agree that these are the coolest-looking birds we have around here, right?  Well, we saw a whole family of Oystercatchers on Monday - they were with us most of the day!  My son took about 200 Oystercatchers pictures.  Wait till you see them!


I wanted to see a whole flock of terns very badly. Other people have seen them, and I loved seeing the photos. As you can see, I lucked out once again! A flock of terns in mid-air; how cool is that? (This flock of terns has a few surprises in store. I won't reveal what makes this photo special just yet, but if you look carefully, you may see it yourself!)

Telling One Good Tern From Another

I think it is very difficult to ID shorebirds.  Many shorebirds species look almost identical, with only minute variations in size or coloring. In many species, appearance changes dramatically as they age, and some species even look different during different months of the year! The tern species we see around here are very confusing.  There were two species of terns at South Beach the day we went: Common Terns and Roseate Terns. During spring and summer, adult Roseate Terns can usually be identified by their thin black bills (as opposed to the orange and black bills of Common Terns). But not always.


This bird's bill looks very black, but since it is immature, a black beak is meaningless. Both species have dark bills when immature or non-breeding. Mature birds have solid black caps, but this bird has a white forehead. This bird has been banded, but that is no help to me.


The white forehead looks rather un-ternlike, but virtually all terns have a white topped head more often than not.


The dark band on the shoulders is something I associate with Common Terns, but . . .


this is also a juvenile bird, so who knows?


The best bet is to say they're all Common Terns, and let it go at that!

Birds of South Beach, Chatham

Armies of gulls!


Armies of cormorants, too.


Tons of plovers and sandpipers!


And terns galore!

We saw Black-bellied Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, Sanderlings, Red Knots, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, Least Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowitchers, Common Terns, Roseate Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Double-crested Cormorants, A Snowy Egret, a Dunlin, an American Oystercatcher, a Piping Plover, and a few bird species we couldn't identify at South Beach in Chatham. You have to be amazed at what we saw that day - in just ONE HOUR, no less!

Why did we stay for just one hour? Because it was hell on earth! We were not prepared for the voracious swarms of greenhead flies on the island. They attacked us the moment we arrived on the island and never stopped biting until we left. Greenhead fly bites HURT. And they were EVERYWHERE! After 30 minutes my daughter and I were screaming and swearing at the flies; after forty-five minutes we were crying and cursing and kicking at them like lunatics. Then we ran for our lives - and my son and husband weren't far behind us!


We didn't get many good pictures from our South Beach trip, obviously, but between the three cameras we did get a few images. The Great Black Backed Gulls taking off as if they were choreographed was impressive.


Great Black Backs are awe inspiring in flight, anyway!






I was also impressed by the brave little peeps sharing the beaches with predators that could eat them for lunch!


Even the predators ran when we got too close!


The immature Great Black-Backed hanging out with a Herring gull is kind of cute.


I love this picture of a Common Tern taken by my husband. He is still the undefeated champion of photography at our house, despite my new camera!


He also took this picture. Do you know what it is!


It's a seal!


This is a horrible picture, but at least you can tell it is an American Oystercatcher. Nor is that the only one we saw on vacation - there was one on a rocky peninsula right near our house!


I'll close with some pictures of birds I can't identify, hoping that someone else can help me out. They are probably immature gulls of some sort, but I didn't think they were gulls at the time. The shape and/or coloring seemed off somehow.




It is primarily the color of this bird that is confusing me. Dark grey all over, without speckles, streaks, or a pattern.

In any case, the sheer variety and quantity of migrating birds at South Beach makes a return visit irresistible. My son and I are planning to go back this week if weather permits, but this time we will be prepared with long pants and long sleeves and as much bug spray as we can carry! (I'm even thinking about getting one of those beekeeper hats with the netting attached if I can find one!) Maybe fly season will REALLY be over this time! Let's hope I get some better photos, too!