ML619271228

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I saw and heard these birds flying by me several times while I was stopped along the trail to look at the California Gull colony. Detected and identified first by familiar grating "ker-rick" calls. Also identified visually: terns intermediate in size between Forster's and Caspian, and lacking long tail plumes of Forster's. Bill long, pointed, and orange, larger than that of Forster's, but not as thick or dark red as that of Caspian. I first heard and saw two Elegant Terns fly in together from the northeast, coming from the far northwest corner of pond A1, close to the edge of the bay. They flew right over me and spent a while circling low over the gull colony together before disappearing from view. I saw another individual in flight overhead shortly afterward. A few minutes later, I heard and saw a group of five flying southward overhead toward the forebay and Shoreline Lake. I may have heard a sixth one calling from a different direction at the same time, but I wasn't completely sure. Longer- and thinner-billed than Royal Tern, and a bit slenderer, as opposed to more Caspian-like flight profile of Royal, which I've seen a couple times before, including earlier this month at Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve in Orange County. The angle of these photos makes this bird's bill look foreshortened and more Royal-like, but in the field the bill shape looked consistent with Elegant. I think the second photo here shows the bill length most clearly. The bird in these photos was one of the pair that gave me the best views as they flew around the gull colony. With the rapid increase in spring reports of this species in the Bay Area over the last couple years, and recent nesting in San Mateo County, it seems worth keeping an eye out for nesting Elegant Terns (or Royal Terns!) among other terns or gulls in Santa Clara County. I'm sure other birders are thinking along the same lines. It might be especially worth watching for them in this California Gull colony, as the pair I saw seemed to be checking it out closely.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX620 HS

ISO

500

Focal length

23.3 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

941 pixels x 706 pixels

Original file size

146.36 KB