Day 210: July 28th – Long Beach Island

Partly sunny with periods of T-storms

       It’s back to the beach for the Bakers.  After being back in the hills of the Hudson Highlands for the past 3 months,  we return to the beach….not New Smyrna, but Long Beach Island in New Jersay.  As we walked the beach before the thunder storms hit, we watched several Forster’s terns and an immature Laughing gull work the shallow surf and shoreline for an early dinner.

       During the summer months, it is a bit difficult to tell the difference between Common terns and Forster’s from first glances.  Upon closer examination, however, you can easily distinguish between the two by the hue of their “primaries”, the longest feathers of the bird’s “hand”.  In Common terns, these feathers are darker than the rest of the wing, while in the Forster’s, the primaries are lighter.  Note the shade of the longest wing feathers on this image taken this afternoon and you should be able to identify this bird as a Forster’s tern.

       One of the principal methods used to identify terns is the color and extent of the
“cap” on the bird and its bill color.  In both species we’re considering here (Common vs Forster’s), the cap is totally black in summer.   For much of the year, the Forster’s is just a black mask through the eye and the forehead is all white.  Not so in summer, however.  So, with both having a totally black cap running all the way back down the nape of the neck, we have to look more closely at bill color.  Again, it’s a matter of degree here, but the Forster’s tends to be a bit more orange with a hint of black near the tip of the bill.  Take a look at the bill of our bird today.

       The other bird we saw at the water’s edge was the Laughing gull.  These birds will all eventually have a totally black head, but the one we saw was a second year bird.  First year Laughing gulls will have an all dark except for a white rump and trailing edge of the wing.  By the second year, the bird is beginning to look more like an adult with a dark gray mantle blending into black wingtips.  The head, however, is still not all black and looks more like a winter adult with its blotchy head.

       Tomorrow, it’s back to the beach to see what other birds of the ocean shore we can find.  We love the mountains, but it is always nice to return to the water and sort through a new assemblage of birds.