COBirders, Today around noon I refound the tern reported last night by Mark Peterson, and it is indeed an Arctic. It was flying mostly along the far (east) shore from the main parking lot, then returning to sit out of sight on a small island covered with gulls, pelicans and cormorants. I don't have the best scope in the world, so I walked around to the far side to get better looks. This is the best spot to view from when the bird is camped out on the island, where it is not visible from the parking area.
While Mark was able to get the correct ID on this bird in bad light, I spent quite a while in bright sun examining it. In flight, I noticed a snappy, buoyant wingbeat that seemed also fairly deep. It did not plunge-dive while I watched it (for over an hour), but sort of plunge-feinted, pulling out of the dive to skim the water. The underwing showed translucent primaries with very narrow black tips, while the upperwing was a uniform gray with no suggestion of a dark "wedge". I also thought the tail was quite long in flight, which was confirmed when the bird was perched and the tail was obviously longer the the wings. Perched, it also showed very short, red legs and a short, all-red bill. To me, the black cap looked very extensive, both forward toward the bill and backward onto the nape. Since this was a lifer for me, I tried to see as many field marks as possibly, and each of the 10 or so that I noticed pointed to Arctic. My questions are: what is this bird doing here, and could it possibly be the same bird seen at Chico more than 2 weeks ago? Cheers, -- Daniel Maynard Manitou Springs, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
