Gull-billed Tern, Plum Island, MA, August 2014

Gull-billed Tern is one of the most common birds in MA that I haven’t seen.  Although it’s certainly not a common bird, it is reported at least annually in recent years, with most sightings occurring in and around Plum Island, and to a lesser extent on the Cape.  I had chased after this species twice at Plum Island – in 2010, and in July this year following Hurricane Arthur.  In both cases my timing was miserable as I was there the first day after the target bird was last seen. 

Fast forward to August 2014 – I was watching my e-mail on a Saturday afternoon when a post came across that a Gull-billed Tern had just been spotted at Stage Island Pool at Plum Island.  If I could leave right then I would be Stage Island Pool within 90 minutes of the sighting.  But I had home commitments and probably shouldn’t head out.  I could give it a try Sunday morning, but then I would run the risk that I would miss yet another Gull-billed Tern in MA by a day.  After a couple minutes of soul searching, I decided I needed to stay at home and would have to delay the trip to tomorrow.  I continued to watch the listserve as the day progressed but there were no other posts of the bird on Saturday.  So I wondered if it even stuck around that day, let alone whether it would be still be around for me on Sunday.

I arrived at Plum Island at 7 with pretty low expectations.  I made a couple quick stops while heading south down the island, watching for terns along the salt marsh just in case the Gull-billed was foraging in the marshes.  I arrived at the north end of Stage Island Pool by 7:30 and did a quick scan of the flats.  There were good numbers of shorebirds, cormorants, geese, and waders, but no terns.  And despite another more detailed scan there were still no terns.  With no terns at all on the island so far, it sure didn’t seem very likely that the Gull-billed was still around. 

There was just one more place to check - Sandy Point – where terns and shorebirds will frequently roost on the beach.  As I headed toward Sandy Point I noticed several birders on the observation platform at the south end of Stage Island Pool.  I don’t think I’ve seen birders on that platform in years, so I decided to see what they might have – “bird the birders” as I say.  When I got up there I asked if they had anything good and they said they had the Gull-billed Tern.  I put my scope up and instantly found the Tern in the distance on the flats.  That was the same area I scanned just a few minutes earlier so it must have just flown in.  Over the next few minutes we watched it feed low over the Pool in classic Gull-billed Tern style – flying 5-10 feet over the water with slow deep wingbeats, frequently looking straight down, and occasionally dropping to the top of the water though not diving.  I also picked out a Baird’s Sandpiper and a Long-billed Dowitcher in the south end of Stage Island Pool.  A bit later we all drove to the north end of Stage Island Pool and got much closer views of the Tern, and got this phonescoped picture.

We also had a Red-necked Phalarope swimming in the water in front of the Tern.  That was a nice collection of shorebirds for one location and a classic Plum Island experience.

That was my first Gull-billed Tern for New England – species number 427 for New England.  And it was number 404 for me in MA.  In my statebird map below I’ve seen this species in all of its normal range except for GA, and now MA as a rarity.