Artic Tern (Finally!) at PINS, 7/30/26

Yesterday Caley Thomas found an immature Arctic Tern at the Padre Island National Seashore.  She along with Willie Sekula had seen the same bird a few days earlier.  Others also reported it.  OK.  That's enough!  Time to make another try at my Texas nemesis bird.  Arctic Tern used to be a mega rare bird in Texas with just a few reports from isolated western lakes and coastal beaches.  But several were seen along the beach at Padre National Seashore durning July of 2024.  I made a couple of tries and missed, one by just a few minutes.  And maybe a half dozen, both adults and young, have been seen this past month.  Whether it's global warming or just more birders is hard to say

So I took off again yesterday morning and reached the Padre Island National Seashore by 10:30 am.  I was not worried about being early as the birds tend to be out feeding during early hours.  It was time to start searching the tern flocks for a black-naped Sterna with very short legs and a delicate bill.

Just a note on Tern classification.  They all used to be in the genus Sterna but recent molecular genetic studies have caused ornithologists to split the terns into several genera.  Kinda makes sense.  Sterna is made up of the confusing group of mid sized terns that include Forster's, Common, Roseate and Arctic Terns.

There were plenty of Terns to sort through.  Everyone is done breeding and out playing on the beach.  Larger terns included lots of Royal and Sandwich Terns and a few Caspian Terns.

And just a word about leg anatomy.  The visible swelling on a birds leg is not it's "knee".  It's the "heel".  The entire portion of the bird's leg below that swelling is it's foot.  Above the swelling is the bird's tibia.  The "knee' and femur are not visible.  Think about a chicken hind quarter.  The thigh and drum stick join at the knee.  The other end of the drum stick is the that swelling visible in the photos above.  This is helpful to keep in mind as I examine leg length on Sterna gulls.

So what about this guy in a mixed tern flock.  It looks a little short legged.

The problem is "short" is a rtelative term.  Short compared to what?  So my strategy was just to check out and photograph a lot of Sterna terns.  If I missed it in the field maybe I would catch it later while editing photos.  Leg length duly noted but maybe the bill is too heavy.  Hmmm....

Now here's three of them.  Six in the next pic.  There's only one Arctic Tern so these have to be Common Terns.

Hundreds of Black Terns served as a distracton.

What about this one?  Seems pretty short legged and small billed.  Leg length can also be affected by how fluffed up the bird is and is it partially squatting?

I got closer and now the legs seemed a little longer.  Then it stretched and I think there's too much black in the primaries.  Maybe the carpal bar is too bold.

A Black Skimmer skimmed by.  I moved on.

Then...  really short legs, cute round head and dainty thin bill....  This might be it!  I moved closer.

As Troy Hibbetts put it "The legs are almost comically short."  It walked away a little and "waddled" might better describe the motion.  Arctic Tern!

It flew and I got some decent photos showing thedark tipped primary flight feathers and the pale secondaries.

This poor little Arctic Tern is less than half way along its fall migration route from the Arctic to the Antarctic.  Including the return that's nearly a 25,000 mile annual trip.  Resting with it's eyes closed, it may not be feeling well.  Many of out lost vagrant birds are stressed.

Arctic Tern is species #612 on my Texas eBird list.  Glad I was finally able to tick that one!  It was not a lifer as I saw a few with the Kevin and Barry Zimmer on the 1981 Western Field Ornithologists pelagic trip out of San Diego.  So it had been a while.

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 Falcons 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.