On Sunday at Titlow Beach in Tacoma a was watching about two dozen terns playing kings of the pilings. One would take off as another was about to settle on top of it.
Then it would displace another on yet another piling. A couple of times, the whole group, seemingly spooked, flew out over the Sound a few hundred yards and then circled back.
I enjoyed watching them immensely, but found it frustrating too. How many people out there can readily identify terns?
It seemed feasible that they could be either Forster's or Common terns, or a combination thereof. It even occurred to me they could be off course Arctic terns.
Most of them seemed to be somewhere in-between winter and summer plumage. The bright sunlight made it difficult to distinguish either a "dark wedge" or "frosty" wing tips
as Peterson describes the outer primaries.
For some reason, I've gotten through my life to this point seeing very few terns.
Michael Brown
mbeb1215 at delphi.com
Puyallup, WA