I had the privilege of co-leading the second trip of the day out to Stratton Island today. Once we made it through the choppy waters, we were treated to an incredible show that can only be made possible by an island chock full of nesting terns. Fledgling Least and Common Terns were ridiculously adorable as always. Freshly fledged Glossy Ibis were pretty cool to see as well.
It was nice to see building numbers and diversity of mostly migrant shorebirds as we had 7 species of shorebirds on the island and added Willets in the flats at Jones Creek to the trip list upon docking back at Pine Point. Bonaparte's Gulls were also abundant on the way back through the Scarborough River.
Great looks at Arctic and Roseate Tern's were certainly highlights of all on this trip, myself included, but I have to say that my personal highlight was an adult Common Tern landing on one of the support ropes to the visitor's blind just a few feet away from me. This bird perched on the rope for about two minutes and I was shocked that my lens could even focus on it, meaning it was 4.9 feet or better away from me. It seemed like 2 feet and I felt like I was holding it in my hand!
Below is the complete Ebird checklist so if anyone would like me to share the list, please reply offline.
Bird haahd,
Noah Gibb-Portland, ME
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