Dear Tweeters,

This morning (6-09-05), for some reason I decided to
grab my spare binoculars out of the car and walk
around the barnyard before heading off to work.
Amazingly, I heard what sounded like a Caspian Tern.
Looking out to the south, I saw a flock of six Caspian
Terns flying eastward (in the upriver direction),
about twenty meters off the ground, calling raucously.
These birds were flying over farmland, along the north
edge of Cockreham Island, about a quarter mile from
the Skagit River, at around 6:30 AM. Then, just as
abruptly as they appeared, the birds turned around and
started heading westward again.

In Washington at least, I have never seen a Caspian
Tern more than a half mile or so from saltwater. These
birds were twenty or thirty miles up the river. Are
there other records for this species in the freshwater
habitats of Western Washington?




Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com




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