Hello, tweeters.

It's interesting that there are still quite a few Caspian Terns in
Commencement Bay, Tacoma, as of this morning (10/3), while they seem to
have disappeared from most parts of the state some time ago (we saw none in
Grays Harbor on the 9/24 pelagic trip). This is because a small number of
birds at the Point Defiance colony still have young in the nests (fide Gary
Shugart), so they can't exactly head south until they've finished their
essential parental care. This is very late for breeding.

Many birds depart their breeding grounds as soon as parental care is
finished, while other species don't migrate until the annual molt of their
flight feathers, begun after breeding, is completed. Many gulls and some
terns begin flight-feather molt while they are breeding, and it would be
interesting to know if these terns proceeded with their normal molt
schedule or molted much later than usual because of their late breeding.
In any case, it's always a bit startling to see birds when you didn't
expect them (and one of the many reasons birding is fun).

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html