ML449345171

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

**Extremely rare in context. A rare but annual county bird along the Hudson River, but unheard of inland for the county (only one previous record from New Croton Res.) and much more scarce in spring (vast majority of county records are between Jul.-Oct.). Moreover, there are no inland NY records East of the Hudson between this bird and Rensselaer (nearly 100 miles North)! Clearly, part of the incredible influx of ARTE into the region today, though more of an accidental species as there were practically no records from NY, NJ, CT, etc today (all records I saw appear to be continuing birds). More on this awesome “tern out” on the ARTE post. I got eyes on this bird as it passed over SE and although I assumed this was the Common Tern, I quickly said, “That bird’s got no tail and is pretty large!” To my amazement, when I checked the camera screen, a classic breeding plumage Caspian Tern was right there! Light gray back, white chest, chunky, red beak, large, black cap, sticky body, short tail, black underwing tips. Somehow, the world’s largest tern managed to evade all other birders at Cross River Res today! After it passed over head, it continued in a determined fashion SE, making me think it just was coming over the reservoir. Photos to come

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

ISO

1000

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/4000 sec

Dimensions

1196 pixels x 797 pixels

Original file size

241.82 KB