ML636730099

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One light tern with dark cap more agile than Caspian seen feeding far to the south by the Duck Blinds and never came north. The second individual was a possible Arctic Candidate. As light rain rolled in two Sterna began to fly north upriver from far south flying directly toward me. When they reached the islands west of Chemours they banked and circled for a bit. One individual turned out to be a Common Tern, as the dark wedge on the primaries could be seen even at distance. The second individual still gave a grayish impression underneath, but I couldn't make out the dark wedge. It appeared quite streamlined and slightly longer-tailed and possibly more compact. They both set off north again heading straight for me, at an angle that made picking up field marks difficult. After passing behind another island they passed closer to the Eva side where I could finally get a bit better side view. One individual was now decidedly Common. The upperwing of the other individual still appeared quite even, and at this point the grayish underneath was quite visible and extensive, stopping just short of the cheek leading to a more pronounced and thin white cheek patch compared to the still visible but less snappy cheek patch of the Common. At this point I could make out some bill color, and it either appeared to have a mostly blood red beak, but perhaps the dark color could have disappeared in the background. I should have watched it more as they got closer, but at this point I was trying to get some digiscope documentation. Unfortunately they mostly turned out too blurry and I was often unsure if I was photographing the right bird. Once they reached the railway island, the Common Tern stopped and looped, and the bird in question flew north hugging the opposite shore. I lost it heading north near the opposite shore. I never picked up a dark wedge on the second bird, but besides a few loops at distance and a broadside view over by Eva it was mostly flying at a bad angle to see the wing pattern. I didn't get especially great views of the underwing to get a full sense of the pattern besides at least some black on the trailing edge of the underside of the primaries and light probably wasn't sufficient to see how translucent the flight feathers were.