Sooty Tern - Bill Lee
Report

Contributor

Date

Location

Wachusett Reservoir--Rainbow Cove, Gate 36
Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Media from this location Illustrated Checklist
Map
Map Coordinates: 42.399756, -71.7333412
Age
Not specified
Sex
Not specified

Observation details

Continuing tropical storm bird. Enjoyed views and conversation with Justin Lawson and his outdoors loving boys. Thanks to my friends, Dan Burton for sharing his scope and Rachel Baum for tracking the bird's movement when I switched over from bins to camera. The large distance, harsh light, and haze made getting a decent doc photo ultra challenging. Large tern flying above and below the tree line, dropping down to the water several times to drink and forage. One particularly good look occurred during a successful foraging foray. Sooty black above with white patagial margins, dark underwing primaries, black cap and black eye lines yielding a white triangular forehead creating a very similar head look as a Least Tern minus the bill of course, which was black on the Sooty Tern, a forked tail, which I was not able to discern as having white retrices due to viewing conditions described above.

Technical information

Model
COOLPIX B700
ISO
100
Focal length
143.3 mm
Flash
Flash did not fire
f-stop
f/5.6
Shutter speed
1/400 sec
Dimensions
1024 pixels x 768 pixels
Original file size
397 KB