Black Tern has been a real nemesis bird for me in NH. Many years ago I saw a flock of 6 feeding in Herrick’s Cove in VT, no more than 50 feet from NH, but they wouldn’t cross the state line. And then there was the report of 300 on the coast the day Irene passed (though my MA sightings that day were certainly a worthwhile tradeoff). And there was even a belated post this fall of one in Hudson, NH (just 40 minutes away) that I looked for without luck. Most NH sightings are of low numbers passing down the coast (seen from shore or on a pelagic trip), or on the Connecticut River, but they usually don’t stick around so not generally chaseable.
I signed up for this year’s Fall NH Audubon pelagic trip with Black Tern as one of a pretty short list of realistically possible statebirds to hope for – Puffin would be the other key target in NH. The initial part of the ride had a few good birds on the Isles of Shoals (Whimbrel, Lesser Black-black), but not much was being seen on the open ocean. Most birds were found following fishing traulers, with fair numbers of shearwaters mixed in with the gulls. Then a distant group of Common Terns caught everyone’s attention. As we got closer the call went out that 3 Black Terns were in the flock. We got great views of the birds, so no doubt on the ID of course. The only question was which state they were in – a quick review of the GPS showed they were indeed in NH waters! Finally! As the day progressed I ended up seeing 4 other Black Terns – quite a number after missing them for so long in NH.
By far the best bird on the trip was an immature Long-tailed Jaeger – right next to the boat for several minutes. And seeing nearly a dozen Lesser Black-backed Gulls among the Herring/GBB flocks was excellent too. Puffin will have to wait for a future trip.
My statebird map for Black Tern is inserted below. I’ve got it now in 5 of 6 New England states. And it’s quite a common bird in much of the rest of the country – NH was my 38th state.
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