ML609321962

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Picked up on this small tern lazily flying left at quite the distance just before 9am. It was just a silhouette at first but decided to stay on it as any small tern late September could be interesting. Flying with a bouncy flight just above the waves, it swung back around and came in closer almost straight out from Hutches. I'd been watching it in the scope for about a minute then I called it out that a small tern was headed in our direction from the right not too far out (~75m). Not sure how many people got on it, but I immediately lost it after I took these photos. It was when I said to myself "those wings are pretty long", ARTE crossed my mind. I noted a dark bill with some orange at the base and that the upperwing was marked with dark shoulders. I quickly eliminated FOTE with the absence of the dark eye patch but instead it had a dark cap with a pale forehead. I have little experience with fall plumage COTE and ARTE so I took some photos to reference later. The last we may have seen of this tern was it flying away from us, out toward the wave tower, although another birder thought it was a FOTE. Got home, and went through my bird book and called it off as a COTE and left it at that. Yesterday, Brandon Holden reached out to me asking for more photos of this bird as he had the suspicion it may be an ARTE. We discussed that structurally it fit for a ARTE but from the low quality of these photos it was hard to judge bill length and other features. That evening and today I got some further input (Discord & NA Terns Facebook group) from skilled birders suggesting that this was indeed a 1st year Arctic Tern. The white secondaries, and the proportions seem to close the case between ARTE/COTE.