Hi Tweets,

I again heard someone mentioning that the Everett Arctic Terns were the
southernmost nesting record known for this species. Now, this is probably
true for the Pacific Ocean, and Everett is a very far south record for
this species. But in the interest of all of us being well-informed, it
should be known that a handful of sites are known from the Atlantic coast
which are farther south. According to my map, Everett is about the same
latitiude as Portland, Maine. Arctic Terns are known to nest as far
south as Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Formerly, they only nested in Orleans,
but recent beach dynamics may have caused them to move a few miles south
to Chatham.

I feel guilty typing this, because it seems many take great pride in
thinking the Everett birds are the southernmost (even says so in Wahl and
Paulson, 1991, p. 80) record for any Arctic Terns. Sort of like when you
tell a kid there's no Santa Claus. But we can all PROUDLY state that
they are almost certainly the southernmost Pacific site. Maybe we could
finance a Russia expedition to make sure (I'll go!)...

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html