Subject: Least (or Little) Tern seen at Westport
Date: May 11 14:42:35 2004
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


John Wingfield, Ursula Valdez, Lisa Haderlie, Jean Hays, Marilyn
Ramenofsky, and Jane D'Oliver saw a tiny tern two different times (on
the beach and in flight) at the base of the Westport jetty on May 8.
From the description it was probably a first-summer LEAST TERN.
Unfortunately, we have to consider the possibility that it could also
have been a LITTLE TERN, widespread in the Palearctic and recorded
from Hawaii, and we will never know for sure. There is one previous
Least Tern record from Washington, at Ocean Shores in Aug 1978.
--
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
1500 N. Warner, #1088
Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html