Padre Island National Seashore, 6/22/26

On Sunday Willie Sekula and Caley Thomas found an adult breeding plumaged Arctic Tern while plying the beach at the Padre Island National Seashore.  I'm sure this wasn't just an accidental find but an intentional attemp to locate this and other rare species that can show up on Gulf beaches during the summer.  Willie knows his stuff!

Arctic Tern is my Texas nemesis species by a long shot.  I have driven many beaches hoping to find one and I've chased several, all to no avail.  So I got up early Monday morning and made the nearly 200 mile drive to the Padre Island National Seashore where it is possible to drive sixty miles of beach.  There were plenty of terns to sort through.  These are mostly Royal Terns.  Breeding is over and white foreheads are coming back.

Sandwich Terns were also around.

But I was after the smaller Arctic Tern which means fishing through the Common Terns.  These are all in basic plumage.  I don't know if they are young of this year or non breeders.

There were also breeding plumaged Common Terns known as alternate plumage.

I don't know if this is a Common Tern or a Forster's Tern.  iNat say's Forster's but the bill doen't seem orange enough to me though it is pretty big.  I didn't see any basic plumaged Forster's which is easy to ID.

I ran into long time Texas lister John Berner and his wife from Houston.  Arctic Tern is his nemesis bird too.  Turns out neither of us were able to find it.  Willie's list on eBird had a lot more birds.  I'm sure many were driven off by the Sunday afternoon beach goers.  So maybe it wasn't our fault.

Best bird for me was this young Aplomado Falcon.  I'm sure it hatched nearby.  Tag says B 04.  I remember seeing my first along the coast of Veracruz many years ago.  Aplomado Falcos were once extirpated from the US but are now realitvely easy to find due to captive breeding programs and providing nesting birds with preditor proof nest boxes.

And at the same spot I was also rewarded with three Magnificent Frigatebirds.  I picked up six new birds for my Kenedy County list.

So I didn't get what I wanted but it was still a beautiful day at the beach.