The adult Arctic Tern was still present this morning at the Big Stone NWR. All observations were made from the dam along Hwy75 looking west over the main east pool.
It was first spotted at 6:45AM following a group of 9 Forster's Terns coming in from the NW and flying toward the dam. The Arctic broke off from the group shortly after and I lost track of it. About half an hour later the group of terns including the Arctic was refound on the rocks along the southern shore of the main east pool (looking S/SW from the dam). The Arctic spent 15 minutes perched on a rock before flying NW with most of the Forster's. It was nearly half an hour before it came within visual range again and was foraging with at least 17 Forster's Terns along the SW shore for 15 minutes before it was last seen at 8:15AM flying north. It wasn't seen again by the time I left an hour later. There was also an adult Common Tern present and associating with both the Forster's and the Arctic so caution is necessary when identifying the Arctic. Other birds of note at the refuge: Greater White-fronted Goose Snowy Egret Black-bellied Plover Herring Gull Caspian Tern Sharp-tailed Grouse at the junction of Big Stone CR64 and CR67. Bill Unzen Lac Qui Parle County. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20070715/2e635abf/attachment.html
