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Ballona Birding trip report Nov. 21,2015
Brandt’s Cormorant J. Waterman Marina del Rey 11/21/15
The Santa Ana winds, typical of this season, had just started sweeping into the region and we enjoyed warm, dry weather on the coast. However, this was not ideal birding weather. Our low-tide planning and the two rarities (Long-tailed Duck and Common Murre) did not make an appearance, but we still reach the 60-species mark with a short walk at the Freshwater Marsh where two atypical species (Fox Sparrow and Common Gallinule) were present on the busy Lincoln Blvd. side of the marsh. Surprising bird of the day: a Canada Goose seen in the distance off Dockweiler Beach, well beyond the surf. Also a not-so-typical dominance of Brandt’s Cormorants over the usually more numerous Double-crested.
Royal Tern J. Waterman 11/21/15 Ballona Creek
Canada Goose 10
Gadwall 6
American Wigeon 8
Mallard 40
Cinnamon Teal 2
Northern Shoveler 13
Lesser Scaup 4
Surf Scoter 35
Bufflehead 8
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Ruddy Duck 5
Common Loon 3
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Horned Grebe 2
Eared Grebe 7
Western Grebe 20
Brandt’s Cormorant 350
Double-crested Cormorant 20
Pelagic Cormorant 2
Brown Pelican 40
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 4
Osprey 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Common Gallinule 1
American Coot 40
Black-bellied Plover 12
Killdeer 1
Black Oystercatcher 1
Willet 3
Whimbrel 1
Marbled Godwit 3
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Black Turnstone 3
Surfbird 2
Sanderling 25
Least Sandpiper 7
Bonaparte’s Gull 1
Heermann’s Gull 3
Ring-billed Gull 1
Western Gull 8
Herring Gull 1
Royal Tern 2
Rock Pigeon 18
Mourning Dove 1
Allen’s Hummingbird 1
Anna’s Hummingbird 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Black Phoebe 1
Say’s Phoebe 1
Cassin’s Kingbird 2
American Crow 4
Bushtit 20
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Northern Mockingbird 1
American Pipit 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 30
Savannah Sparrow 1
Fox Sparrow 1
White-crowned Sparrow 22
House Finch 2
Iridescent male Bufflehead J. Waterman 11/21/15 del Rey Lagoon
Ibis, Pelican, Cormorant and a Quiz
We start with two recent visitors to Malibu Lagoon which most of us missed because the birds weren’t present during our last Sunday bird walk.
White-faced Ibis cruises in, keeping primary feather tips barely out of the water
(Jim Kenney 10/21/15 Malibu Lagoon)
This White-faced Ibis popped in on Wednesday, 21 October. You don’t get to see how glossy-green they are unless the light is just right. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see a white line – the “supraloral line” between the eye and the top of the bill. Extend this thin line all the way around the eye and the fleshy area surrounding the bill and you’ll have the “white-face” of the breeding bird, for which it is named. [The “lores” – which the supraloral line is immediately above – is the area directly between each eye and the closest part of the bill. Handy to know, as many species’ field I.D.’s include something unusual in the lores. See the Black-throated Gray Warbler picture in our 10/25/15 lagoon field trip report for an example.]
White-faced Ibis (Jim Kenney 10/21/15)
White & Brown Pelicans (Jim Kenney 10/28/15)
Brown Pelicans have been present at the lagoon 163 out of the 164 census days since August 2000. That’s consistency. Even during breeding season some are around: young non-breeding birds, as well as breeding birds taking a lagoon break before returning to their Channel Islands nesting grounds, particularly Anacapa, the closest island. Female Brown Pelicans usually gain their adult plumage at the age of thre; males, slightly larger, may take a bit longer. (1)
It’s easy to tell the adult from the sub-adult Brown Pelican: the young are dingy: dingy brown above, dingy white below, dingy gray bill. The adults are dark gray-brown above and below, with bright colors of brown, creamy-white, and yellow on the head and neck and reddish gular pouch. I am frequently asked which pelican they are, Brown or White.
My standard reply is: They’re all brown, whatever their color. We don’t get White Pelicans at the lagoon. Brown Pelicans are plunge-divers, spotting fish below and diving on them, both in the ocean and occasionally in the lagoon. White Pelicans catch fish by working as a team, swimming in shallow water and “herding” the fish into a compact group, hemmed in by the shore or by the birds themselves, who then gobble them up. For this they need calm waters with lots of fish, like larger estuaries or inland ponds and lakes. The lagoon isn’t quite right for them. In 35 years of lagoon birdwalks, we’ve never recorded an American White Pelican.
But…never say never. Here’s one, photographed by Jim Kenney three days after our last lagoon birdwalk. The rusty-brown color on the wing-coverts, less noticable on the neck, indicate a sub-adult bird. The photo below includes Great and Snowy Egrets.
White & Brown Pelicans; Snowy & Great Egrets (Jim Kenney 10/28/15)
By the way, if the adult Brown Pelican in the first picture looks a little odd, with perhaps two shades of brown on his body and an unusually long tail, it’s because there’s a Double-crested Cormorant tucked in next to him, more obviously visible in the second picture. I think this pelican has found a friend.
Speaking of Double-crested Cormorant, here’s one we saw on our Sept. 27, 2015 lagoon birdwalk. I didn’t know anyone had gotten a picture of it until Kirsten Wahlquist surprised me. We couldn’t tell exactly what was going on with this bird: was that a small bloody piece of fish in it’s bill, or fish plus lure with hooks, or just a lure with hooks, was the bird hooked and trying to dislodge it, was it trying to eat the fish around the hook…or what? It thrashed around so much it was tough to tell.
Sometimes this Double-crested Cormorant looked hooked, sometimes not
(Kirsten Wahlquist 9/27/15)
I’m still not sure what was going on. Is that a lure attached to a small fish, or is it a fish-shaped lure? Perhaps someone who knows their lures will let us know. Close examination of the photo makes me conclude that one prong of the hook is indeed stuck into the flesh of the inside upper bill.
What with this hooked cormorant, and the fishing-line-wrapped Eared Grebe on our 10/25/15 birdwalk , I have to think that some of the local fishermen are not hanging onto their equipment with proper care. And, speaking of local fishermen, there were a pair of them fishing in the lagoon on Oct. 25. When one of them replied affirmatively to my question, “Are you planning on eating what your catching?” I replied that bacterial counts in the lagoon are frequently very high, and he might want to reconsider that plan. His unconcern was disconcerting.
“Hey, watch this!” cried the Double-crested Cormorant (Randy Ehler 9/27/15
Addendum: I didn’t know I’d already received Randy’s photo (above) when I wrote this blog, discovering it about 10 days later. Randy gets to the beach early and takes many of his photos before the rest of the group arrives. This picture, showing the bird not yet hooked, but apparently only “playing” with the lure, was probably taken before Kirsten’s photo above. This shows that there is only a hooked lure, no actual fish involved. Oh well, I’ve seen human kids doing far more stupid things that playing with hooked food.
And lastly, the photo below is blurry, but here’s a good chance to flex your birding brain muscle. [We don’t always get soul-satisfying views of a bird.] We’ll tell you right up front it’s a Horned Grebe, so you need not act fast and send in two boxtops with your guess. But why is it a Horned Grebe and not an Eared Grebe, a far more common bird at the lagoon? Look closely at the picture (you might want to view it on the blog) and compare it to both Horned and Eared Grebes in your favorite field guide. [Chuck Almdale]
Why is this a Horned Grebe rather than an Eared Grebe? (Joyce Waterman 10/25/15)
NOTES:
(1). The Biogeography of California Brown Pelican, Elise Willett, 2001. San Francisco State University
Malibu Lagoon Trip Report: 25 October, 2015
View to southeast across sand islands and inundated beach (J. Waterman 10/25/15)
Continuing large waves at high tides have washed away about 80% of the beach. The virtual fence for the Snowy Plover enclosure is gone, save one lonely pole, and the plovers have moved as well. I fully expect that one good rain – say, 2 inches – will fill Malibu Creek and blow out the beach between lagoon and ocean. [For our non-SoCal readers, 2” of rain is a lot for this neck of the woods. It may be the total rainfall we had last year.]
Despite that, excitement abounded at the lagoon today. The siren call of high surf stacked the sea with surfers. And birds galore! 78 species tied an all-time record for our Sunday walks.
| Date | 10/25/15 | 9/26/10 | 9/26/04 | 10/27/13 | 4/28/91 |
| Species | 78 | 78 | 76 | 75 | 75 |
Great Egret pole extension
(J. Waterman 10/25/15)
Not only did we have a lot of species, we had a lot we seldom see. Our handy presbyopia-challenging checklist includes the 140 most common species – just about everything seen on more than 1% of trips, so anything we write in is uncommon at the lagoon. We had nine write-in birds: Eurasian Collared-Dove, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Warbling Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hermit Thrush, and Black-throated Gray Warbler. Admittedly, none of these birds are uncommon in SoCal; it’s just that they don’t often show up at the lagoon, primarily due to lack of habitat such as large woodpecker-friendly trees.
Hmm….that’s only seven species. The other two – Red-breasted Sapsucker and Palm Warbler – are totally new birds for the lagoon birdwalk. Sapsuckers like to suck sap (hence the name, although they really lick it and eat insects attracted to the ooze) and lagoon area trees aren’t quite right for that sort of thing, but Palm Warbler is one of those eastern warblers that show up west of the Rocky Mountains from time to time. They’re probably one of the most commonly appearing of the uncommon eastern warblers, and are reported in SoCal every year, although I personally haven’t seen one for a couple of years.
Palm Warbler – visiting from east of the Rockies (R. Ehler 10/25/15)
They’re best identified by their behavior: they like to walk on the ground, wagging their tail as they tootle along. They always have a yellow vent and usually have thin dark streaks on the pale breast, pale line over the eye and a faint chestnut cap. Chris Lord, returning from the beach, spotted it and reported it to the group. The following day, local ornithologist Dan Cooper found two Palm Warblers at the lagoon, confirmed by several later birders.
Hermit Thrust (R. Ehler 10/25/15)
The Red-breasted Sapsucker probably didn’t stay long: it was spotted briefly in some small trees near the colony back fence; it then took off, heading east.
Black-throated Gray Warbler: yellow lores but no black throat (R. Ehler 10/25/15)
It took longer than usual for us to reach the beach – not a problem as waves were washing across the sand into the lagoon. Only a few steps away from the squabbling trio of Killdeer at our meeting spot, we spotted the first (Black-throated Gray Warbler) of what turned out to be six species of warbler near the parking lot. A Townsend’s popped up, then some Yellow-rumped, a Common Yellowthroat, several Orange-crowned, a Warbling Vireo, Spotted & California Towhees, Song, White-crowned & Savannah Sparrows, House Finches, Lesser Goldfinches, and finally some Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Bushtits as we walked away.
Allen’s Hummingbird and his fabulous tongue (Kirsten Wahlquist 10/25/15)
Afterward, Joyce Waterman sent me some photos of what she thought might be a Yellow Warbler. I couldn’t confirm or deny – thinking it might be Orange-crowned or Nashville – so we sent them on to Kimball Garrett at the Natural History Museum, who termed it a “textbook example” of Yellow Warbler. [What do I know?] See photo below.
Yellow Warbler (J. Waterman 10/25/15)
The elusive Marsh Wren
(J. Waterman 10/25/15)
Joyce also took about a million photos of one of the two – possibly four – Marsh Wrens that began to appear last month. Marsh Wren is one of those “easy to hear, hard to see” birds, and it’s even harder to photograph. We did manage to get everyone “onto” the bird this trip, as it skulked through the mini-patches of reeds.
We did not see the swans. Perhaps they’ve left, perhaps they were somewhere up the creek. Most of last month’s melee of mullet managed to escape the lagoon, or were snoozing on the bottom. They certainly weren’t churning up the lagoon edge as they had last month.
By the time we reached the beach the tide had retreated. We checked out the shorebirds and gulls and trudged onward down the beach, where Kirsten Wahlquist and Lu Plauzoles had an adventure. They relate:
Eared Grebe tangled in fishing line, attacked by gull (Kirsten Wahlquist 10/25/15)
Lu: [We got] a very close-up view of an Eared Grebe. It was incapacitated and being attacked by a Western Gull at the edge of the beach near the
The famous jail-break-for-grebes tool, pocket model
(Lu Plauzoles 10/25/15)
pier. Luckily I had my jail-break-for-grebes tool (pocket model), and as a surfer held the recalcitrant bird, we took 3 feet of tangled monofilament fishing line from his lobed feet and left wing. The bird quickly swam back out to sea.
Kirsten: Lu was the one that actually freed the grebe – I just watched from 75 yards away! I didn’t get a photo of the rescue itself, but I did get one of the gull going after the grebe.
Kudos to Lu and the Surfer-with-no-name, and best wishes to the freed grebe. To the gull? Better luck elsewhere.
As always, many thanks to the photographers: Randy Ehler, Joyce Waterman, joined this month by Kirsten Wahlquist and Lu Plauzoles. Also many thanks to Randy Ehler and his birding phone-app on which he keeps a separate count from mine, and to Chris Lord for always sharing his first-man-on-the-beach sightings with me. My records would be the poorer without them.
Birds new for the season were: Northern Shoveler, Horned & Western Grebe, Pelagic Cormorant, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Merlin, Nanday Parakeet, Western Scrub-Jay, Bewick’s Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Palm, Black-throated Gray- &Townsend’s Warblers, Spotted Towhee, Brown-headed Cowbird and House Sparrow.
The elegant Gadwall male (R. Ehler 10/25/15)
Our next three scheduled field trips: Ballona Creek Area, 14 Nov. 8:30am; Malibu Lagoon, 22 November, 8:30 & 10am; Carrizo Plains, 12 Dec. 9am (sign up required).
Our next program: Unusual Mortality Event Affecting California Sea Lions with Jeff Hill on Tuesday, 3 November, 7:30 pm, at [note location change] Chris Reed Park, 1133 7th St., NE corner of 7th and Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica
NOTE: Our 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk meets at the shaded viewing area. Watch for Willie the Weasel. He’ll be watching for you and your big floppy feet.
Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon
Prior checklists:
2015: Jan-May
2014: Jan-July, July-Dec 2013: Jan-June, July-Dec
2012: Jan-June, July-Dec 2011: Jan-June, July-Dec
2010: Jan-June, July-Dec 2009: Jan-June, July-Dec
The 10-year comparison summaries created during the project period, despite numerous complaints, remain available on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page. Very briefly summarized, the results unexpectedly indicate that avian species diversification and numbers improved slightly during the period Jun’12-June’14. [Chuck Almdale]
| Malibu Census 2015 | 4/26 | 5/24 | 7/26 | 8/23 | 9/27 | 10/24 |
| Temperature | 66-76 | 59-70 | 70-82 | 70-77 | 68-77 | 64-75 |
| Tide Lo/Hi Height | L+0.58 | L+0.54 | L+2.37 | L+2.80 | H+5.94 | H+5.93 |
| Tide Time | 1139 | 0927 | 1143 | 0944 | 0918 | 0810 |
| Brant | 3 | 7 | 1 | |||
| Canada Goose | 30 | |||||
| Mute Swan | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Gadwall | 10 | 22 | 5 | 8 | 54 | 15 |
| Mallard | 8 | 8 | 55 | 35 | 34 | 30 |
| Northern Shoveler | 6 | |||||
| Green-winged Teal | 4 | 10 | ||||
| Red-brstd Merganser | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Ruddy Duck | 4 | 5 | 68 | |||
| Pacific Loon | 1 | |||||
| Pied-billed Grebe | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | ||
| Horned Grebe | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Eared Grebe | 1 | 8 | 10 | |||
| Western Grebe | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Brandt’s Cormorant | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Dble-crstd Cormorant | 16 | 55 | 34 | 43 | 36 | 29 |
| Pelagic Cormorant | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Brown Pelican | 1490 | 70 | 17 | 3 | 6 | 42 |
| Great Blue Heron | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| Great Egret | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 5 |
| Snowy Egret | 12 | 4 | 6 | 22 | 18 | 12 |
| Blk-crwnd N-Heron | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Osprey | 1 | |||||
| Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | |||||
| Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | |||||
| American Coot | 1 | 1 | 4 | 75 | 55 | |
| Blk-bellied Plover | 1 | 27 | 75 | 84 | 62 | |
| Snowy Plover | 16 | 21 | 32 | |||
| Semipalmated Plover | 9 | 1 | 5 | 2 | ||
| Killdeer | 2 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 15 |
| Spotted Sandpiper | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | ||
| Willet | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 15 | 35 |
| Whimbrel | 12 | 1 | 13 | 10 | 4 | 2 |
| Marbled Godwit | 2 | 8 | 8 | |||
| Ruddy Turnstone | 3 | 12 | 15 | 18 | ||
| Black Turnstone | 1 | |||||
| Sanderling | 2 | 23 | ||||
| Dunlin | 1 | |||||
| Least Sandpiper | 15 | 8 | 3 | 6 | ||
| Western Sandpiper | 45 | 1 | 14 | 15 | 1 | |
| Short-billd Dowitcher | 6 | |||||
| Long-billed Dowitcher | 1 | 4 | ||||
| Wilson’s Phalarope | 1 | |||||
| Bonaparte’s Gull | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Heermann’s Gull | 350 | 45 | 14 | 11 | 25 | 11 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 30 | 8 | 2 | |||
| Western Gull | 110 | 135 | 40 | 40 | 110 | 90 |
| California Gull | 600 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 4 |
| Glaucous-wingd Gull | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Caspian Tern | 10 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 1 | |
| Common Tern | 1 | |||||
| Forster’s Tern | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Royal Tern | 4 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 15 | 2 |
| Elegant Tern | 3100 | 85 | 45 | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| Black Skimmer | 1 | |||||
| Rock Pigeon | 8 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 10 |
| Eur. Collared-Dove | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Mourning Dove | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| Vaux’s Swift | 45 | |||||
| Anna’s Hummingbird | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Allen’s Hummingbird | 4 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 8 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Red-brstd Sapsucker | 1 | |||||
| Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
| Northern Flicker | 1 | |||||
| Merlin | 1 | |||||
| Nanday Parakeet | 6 | |||||
| Black Phoebe | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 20 | 10 |
| Say’s Phoebe | 4 | 3 | ||||
| Warbling Vireo | 6 | 1 | ||||
| Western Scrub-Jay | 1 | |||||
| American Crow | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 20 | 10 |
| Rough-wingd Swallow | 4 | 6 | 3 | 8 | ||
| Tree Swallow | 10 | 10 | ||||
| Barn Swallow | 6 | 12 | 12 | 12 | ||
| Cliff Swallow | 2 | 10 | 12 | 3 | ||
| Oak Titmouse | 1 | |||||
| Bushtit | 2 | 2 | 20 | 4 | ||
| House Wren | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| Marsh Wren | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Bewick’s Wren | 1 | |||||
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 3 | 4 | ||||
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 4 | |||||
| Hermit Thrush | 1 | |||||
| American Robin | 1 | |||||
| Northern Mockingbird | 6 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| European Starling | 10 | 3 | 25 | 25 | 35 | 10 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 40 | |||||
| Ornge-crwnd Warbler | 2 | 4 | ||||
| Nashville Warbler | 3 | |||||
| Common Yellowthroat | 5 | 5 | 8 | 8 | ||
| Yellow Warbler | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Palm Warbler | 1 | |||||
| Yellow-rumpd Warbler | 3 | 35 | ||||
| Blk-throated G. Warbler | 3 | |||||
| Townsend’s Warbler | 1 | |||||
| Spotted Towhee | 1 | 2 | ||||
| California Towhee | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Savannah Sparrow | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Song Sparrow | 6 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 3 |
| White-crwnd Sparrow | 2 | 25 | ||||
| Red-winged Blackbird | 2 | 40 | 15 | 15 | ||
| Western Meadowlark | 4 | 4 | ||||
| Brewer’s Blackbird | 2 | |||||
| Great-tailed Grackle | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 10 |
| Brwn-headed Cowbird | 4 | 2 | ||||
| Hooded Oriole | 3 | |||||
| House Finch | 12 | 20 | 2 | 12 | 25 | 9 |
| Lesser Goldfinch | 3 | 3 | ||||
| House Sparrow | 1 | |||||
| Totals by Type | Apr | May | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct |
| Waterfowl | 55 | 37 | 62 | 46 | 99 | 129 |
| Water Birds – Other | 1511 | 134 | 57 | 54 | 126 | 145 |
| Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 19 | 11 | 16 | 39 | 28 | 24 |
| Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Shorebirds | 89 | 8 | 71 | 170 | 215 | 161 |
| Gulls & Terns | 4213 | 294 | 105 | 80 | 169 | 114 |
| Doves | 10 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 13 |
| Other Non-Passerines | 7 | 8 | 4 | 13 | 55 | 20 |
| Passerines | 104 | 86 | 85 | 149 | 213 | 191 |
| Totals Birds | 6009 | 590 | 411 | 564 | 923 | 798 |
| Total Species | Apr | May | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct |
| Waterfowl | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Water Birds – Other | 6 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 |
| Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Quail & Raptors | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Shorebirds | 10 | 3 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 10 |
| Gulls & Terns | 10 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
| Doves | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Other Non-Passerines | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Passerines | 13 | 17 | 13 | 15 | 26 | 33 |
| Totals Species – 110 | 53 | 48 | 44 | 53 | 70 | 78 |
(Un-) Common Terns at Malibu Lagoon
It’s easy to see that the dark “carpal bar” is on the upperwing secondary coverts, between the shoulder and “wrist” (Joyce Waterman 10/11/15)
On the West Coast, Common Terns are not at all common, but recently at Malibu Lagoon, up to 14 birds were reported (Irwin Woldman), resting on the sand with the usual mélange of terns and gulls.
Worldwide, Sterna hirundo is one of the most widespread and commonly seen species of tern. In North America they breed in a roughly rectangular range from Great Slave Lake in Northwest Territories, south to west central Montana, across Canada between the Great Lakes and James Bay on the southern Hudson Bay, and eastward to central Labrador and the Maritime Provinces. When breeding season ends they migrate southward in a broad swath across the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley, down the east coast, and winter along both coasts from Texas to Patagonia, excepting most of the coast of Chile.
Carpal bar on the folded wing is horizontal (Joyce Waterman 10/11/15)
In Eurasia, they breed from the British Isles and Madeira and eastward in a broad swath to eastern Siberia. They winter around the coast of Africa from Senegal to South Africa to Ethiopia, the Indian Ocean coast from Iran to Australia, and throughout Indonesia and the tropical islands of the west Pacific.
A few southbound migrants wander westward from the western Canadian provinces, over the mountains and down to the Pacific coast, and continue southward, occasionally appearing at accommodating places like Malibu Lagoon.
At 15″, the Willet is only 1/2″ longer than the Common Tern
(Joyce Waterman 10/11/15)
Unlike our Least Terns, they are not threatened. World population is 250,000 – 500,000 pairs. About 35,000 pairs nest in North America, 140,000 pairs in Europe, and the rest in the former USSR and adjoining nations.
Swedish scientist Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) described them in 1758, naming them Sterna hirundo. The genus Sterna derives from the Old English word for tern, stearn or stern. Species hirundo is Latin for the swallow, referring to the Common Tern’s buoyant, swallow-like flight and appearance with pointed wings and elongated outer tail feathers.
Black colors can appear on other parts of the wing (Joyce Waterman 10/11/15)
They eat mostly small fish, occasionally taking crustaceans, insects and parts of fish left by others. Opportunistic feeders, they readily switch to other prey when their preferred prey fails, perhaps one reason why they are so successful.
They breed primarily in colonies which can number into the many thousands, and lay eggs from April into June, depending primarily upon latitude. Nests are simple and average only 16″ apart. Normally three eggs are laid, but in poor food years they will lay two or sometimes
The amount of red on the bill is variable
(Joyce Waterman 10/11/15)
only one. Incubation takes three to four weeks; chicks are altricial. By day six the chick recognizes the parents’ landing call; they fledge at 24-28 days. Adult breeding plumage appears by their third spring. Mortality of adults is 7-17% per year; they return to their birth area to breed, and can live up to 25 years.
SoCal birders can confuse them with their close – and, locally, far more common – relative, the Forster’s Tern. They both average 14.5″ long; wingspan for both species is 28.3″ – 32.7″. Plumage of both is a mixture of white, gray and black feathers. Eyes are dark, legs range pale pink to orange to red. Juvenile and 1st-year birds have dark bills, which in breeding become red with black tips. Adults of both species in breeding plumage have a complete black cap, from bill to bottom of nape, passing just below the eye. So far, very similar.
Forster’s Tern – note pale gray, not black, at nape
(Rob Hargraves, Bolsa Chica 10/8/11)
In non-breeding plumage, the best points to look at are the black areas on the head, and the presence or absence of a dark horizontal bar (“carpal bar”) on the folded wing. Both species have black around the eye: in the Common the black extents eye-to-eye around the nape; in the Forster’s the nape is a much paler gray. First-year Common Tern has a black carpal bar; first-year Forster’s might show slightly darker in this area, but it will be thinner and not as dark. Fortunately for SoCal birders, most Common Terns appearing on our shores are first-year birds. Unless, of course, we’re just not noticing non-breeding adults secreted among the Forster’s.
Black extents eye-to-eye around the back (nape) of the head (J. Waterman 10/11/15)
Many thanks to SMBAS member and frequent photographic contributor, Joyce Waterman, for taking these photos at Malibu Lagoon, and to Rob Hargraves whose photo of a Forster’s Tern, taken on our 2011 trip to Bolsa Chica, provided a nice comparison. [Chuck Almdale]
Origins of bird names: The Dictionary of American Bird Names; Choate, Ernest A.; 1985; Harvard Common Press, Boston, MA.
Other data:
Handbook of Birds of the World; 1996; Lynx Edicions, Barcalona, Spain
Birds of North America: Dunn, Aldefer, Lehman; National Geographic Society, Washington, DC
Find the hidden animals
A large part of enjoying nature is seeing what is actually there. Sometimes you find something already looking back at you. See if you can spot the leopard in the photo below.
At 22 words.com there’s a bunch more of these, using photos by Art Wolfe. Check it out and have fun. [Chuck Almdale]
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