Sandwich Tern in MA, White Ibis in NH, and Royal Tern in ME – all in one July 2014 Afternoon

Hurricane Arthur passed by the New England coastline and made landfall in the Canadian Maritimes in early July.  In the days immediately following landfall numerous reports of southern terns were posted in the Maritimes.  And a few days later came reports of Royal and Caspian Terns and Skimmers from the ME coast – birds likely making their way back down the coast.  Most of these reports came from the Hills Beach section of Biddeford.  So I headed to Hills Beach, and despite spending an entire morning there, had no luck with any of the rarities.  As the reports from Hills Beach continued to come in over subsequent days I realized that most sightings were in the evening on rising tides.  I guess I was at the right place but the wrong time of day. 

So it was time to head back to Hills Beach to try again.  High tide on my planned next trip to Hills Beach was at 9 PM, so a rising tide would be at dinner time or later, meaning heading out about mid-afternoon.  But those plans changed when a report of a Sandwich Tern at Plum Island in MA came in around lunch time.  (Actually it was also seen the day before but I missed that report – ugh.)  I alerted Denny Abbott who needed Sandwich Tern for his MA list as well, and he headed right there.  Minutes later I was en route to Plum Island as well, hoping to try for that Tern first and then head to ME.  Denny called me from Plum Island saying that he had the Sandwich Tern, and it was sleeping on the beach in a flock of gulls so no need to rush.  So the pressure was off a bit – I should be able to drop into Plum Island, get the Sandwich Tern quickly, and have plenty of time to head up to Maine.  And then just before I arrived at Plum Island I got a call from Steve Mirick that a White Ibis was just reported on the NH coast.  Wow – another one to try for, through as long as the Sandwich Tern and Ibis cooperated, there still should be enough time.

When I arrived at Lot 1 at Plum Island I noticed a couple birders heading to their cars.  As I passed them en route to the beach I jokingly said something like “Don’t tell me the bird just left”, fully expecting that they would reply that it was still asleep on the beach.  Instead one birder replied that it had just flown away!  My heart sank.  I headed to the beach and the 3 other birders that were still there said that I missed it by less than 5 minutes.  The flock of gulls was still there, but there no terns at all.  They mentioned that it had flown to the south, but were otherwise not very helpful in giving any other details.  Not the friendliest of interactions I’m afraid.

Now what do I do?  Do I cut my losses here and head right up to NH (and then to ME) for the other targets?  Or should I stay here and try for the Sandwich Tern, increasing my chances for this bird but limiting my time and chances of getting the NH and ME targets?  I could see a number of small terns flying over the surf in the distance to the south which was the general area where the Sandwich was last seen.  So I optimistically hoped it could still be around feeding with the others, and decided to stay at Plum Island at least for a while.  I spent the next 10 minutes scanning through the terns but only found Commons and Leasts.  Another birder arrived and we both continued the scans.  Still with no luck searching to the south, I decided to look through the flock of sleeping gulls on the beach thinking that maybe the target bird would return to its roosting spot.  Just then I noticed a tern fly over the flock – it was the Sandwich!  I got the other birder on it, and we watched it make a couple passes before it dropped out of sight and presumably landed on the beach.  That was my first Sandwich Tern for anywhere in New England – my 426th species – and MA statebird number 403.  MA is only my 10th state for this southeastern species.

The other birder decided to walk to a different vantage point to try to see it perched on the beach.  But I had other target birds to try for, so after a brisk walk back to the car, I was headed off Plum Island to try for the White Ibis in NH. 

En route to NH I called Steve Mirick back to get an update on the Ibis.  Steve had refound it at Awcomin Marsh in Rye, NH, and with Steve’s excellent directions I mapped out a route to the spot.  After going through some challenging mid-afternoon coastal traffic, I finally arrived at the marsh and found at least another half dozen birder’s cars there.  Unfortunately the bird was no longer in sight – earlier it was perched on a tree at the marsh edge but has since disappeared from sight.  Maybe if I had gotten the Sandwich Tern quicker I could have been at the Ibis spot sooner and could have gotten that bird before it disappeared.  No one said it would be easy.

By now there were at least a dozen birders at the marsh observation deck all scanning the marsh and surrounding trees.  The tide was falling now, and there were a number of channels in the marsh that the bird could disappear into.  So Steve Mirick and Ben Griffith offered to go walking out in the marsh to try to flush it from a channel somewhere.  I and the others continued to scan the marsh in hopes that Steve or Ben might flush the bird.  After a few minutes with no success our hopes dwindled.  But just then I spotted the Ibis perched on a tree at the edge of the marsh – it had indeed been feeding down in a channel making it not visible from our vantage point.  Many thanks to Steve and Ben for volunteering to walk through the marsh to re-find it.  I got some pretty miserable phone-scoped photos of the bird looking almost directly into the sun.

White Ibis was number 353 for me in NH.  And I’ve now seen White Ibis in 6 Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states plus DC as a rarity, plus most the states in its typical southeastern range. 

I was now 2 for 2 pursuing my targets, with still plenty of time to get up to Biddeford, ME to try for the tern targets there.  After a relatively short 1-hour drive I was in Biddeford and arrived along Hills Beach by late afternoon.  Tide was quite low but rising, so I was hopeful conditions would be right to see the terns.  I parked toward the end of Hills Beach near Sky Harbor Drive where I had been earlier in the week, and started to scan.  There were a number of Common Terns and many gulls on the extensive sand flats, but no bigger terns.  Then I noticed a birder way out on the flats to the west closer to Basket Island, so I decided to head down that way and see if he was having any success – “bird the birders” as I call it.

I parked in the only area where you can legally park and gain access to the beach (opposite Bufflehead’s restaurant), and walked down to the sandflats.  I met up with the birder who told me he had a flyby Skimmer earlier, but no large terns.  There were many small terns on the flats, mostly concentrated in a few larger flocks.  So I set up my scope and started to scan through a flock of terns on one spit and almost instantly found a Royal Tern, and then another, almost side by side.  Until that day no one had seen 2 Royal Terns together during this recent tern “invasion”.  By now another birder arrived and we all got good but distant looks.  The other birders wanted to get some photos, so they headed out to get closer; I decided to keep my feet dry, so I continued to watch from a distance.  I got a couple distant phone-scoped photos that I had to crop extensively to see the Royals.

The other birders must have gotten excellent shots as the terns were not very wary.

 

I spent the rest of the evening there and continued to see both Royal Terns off and on, but there were no other sightings of Skimmers (at least I already had that one for my ME list).  And there were no sightings of Caspian Terns that day or beyond.  I guess if I could only get one tern it was better to get the Royals which were the rarer target.  That gave me 333 in ME and it was my fourth New England state as a rarity.

That capped off an amazing afternoon with 3 New England statebirds in 3 states – all seen in just a 2-hour span.  Only twice before have I been able to get new statebirds in 3 states in one day.  And that gave me 8 New England statebirds in July – an excellent month.  All three species are southeastern birds – in fact my statebird maps are quite similar for each of them.  The terns were likely blown north by Hurricane Arthur though you wouldn’t think the Ibis was affected by the storm.  And as a final thought, one could almost guarantee that I would see the Royal Terns after finding the Sandwich Tern because, as they say, “one good tern deserves another.”