hello tweeties,

i am sorry i am falling behind on publishing Rick Wright's fine analyses for the mystery birds, and i can assure you this is temporary since i am returning to NYC tonight (red eye, i arrive at JFK tomorrow morning).

yesterday's mystery bird was a Royal Tern, Sterna maxima. it seems several of you were successful in identifying this species, but you can read rick's analysis here;

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/09/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_14.php

Here's today's mystery bird for you to identify (tern, tern, tern ..)

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2008/09/todays_mystery_bird_for_you_to_16.php

Joseph Kennedy, whose lovely "mystery bird" images we are looking at, finally contacted me to let me know that he is okay after Hurricane Ike, that he is living in a temporary location since his apt experienced some flooding. hopefully, he will be peeking in at some of the mystery bird images at some point in time, and can see your comments and rick's analyses ..

Birds in the News will return next week, too. Sorry for the break in BITN coverage.

cheers,

GrrlScientist
Devorah
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/
Roosting high up a tree somewhere in Central Park, NYC