Royal Terns, Guilford, CT, October 2014

Western Kingbird has been somewhat of a nemesis bird for me in New England.  I’ve tried for it in ME, VT, and at least twice in CT without success.  So hoping that the third time would be the charm for me in CT, I closely monitored the listserve when one was spotted in Bridgeport.  Although I was away when the bird was first reported, New England Western Kingbirds typically stick around for a few days, so I was hopeful it would still be in the area when I returned in 2 days.  Sure enough it was seen near dusk the day I got home, so it was time to put a plan in place to give it a try the next morning.  I contacted birding friend Laura Carberry to see if she would be interested in going along, and we came up with a plan to head to Bridgeport.

By this time you may be wondering how all this relates to the Royal Terns– it’s a convoluted story but I’ll get there.

We arrived at Seaside Park in Bridgeport mid-morning and found local CT birder Frank Mantlik already on-site.  Unfortunately he didn’t have the bird, and despite multiple birders there since dawn, no one had seen it that day.  We spent maybe an hour there scoping the distant fence line where it had been seen the last couple days, and saw a couple Phoebes that briefly got us excited, but no Kingbird.  A few Pipits and several migrant Sharp-shins came by while we were there, but it was really slow otherwise.  Although both of us really wanted the Kingbird, it seemed like a long shot.  And with so few birds around at all, we decided to move on to some better birding spots nearby.  Laura had never been to Milford Point, so we headed there for some general birding on this nice fall day.

The Connecticut Audubon center at Milford Point has always been one of my favorite birding spots, with numerous excellent habitats in quite a small area.  We found 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Harriers, and several distant Brant in the marsh.  The woods were alive with Yellow-rumps, and one late Blue-headed Vireo.  The beach had a nice flock of Dunlin and Sanderlings, along with the regular gulls, and more Brant.  And Laura picked out a nice male Hooded Merganser which was quite the surprise in salt water. 

As we pulled away from Milford Point I did a quick search of the listserve to check on the Kingbird, but the only posts were negative.  Then I noticed a post that Royal Terns were “still being seen” at Sachem’s Head in Guilford, with 18 Royals and over 20 Forster’s seen the day before.  Two weeks earlier several Royal Terns were spotted at Hammonasset State Park over a 4-day period.  Additionally, a flock had been reported at Sachem’s Head but from private property.  Since these birds don’t typically stick around, and the apparent best spot was not accessible, I hadn’t chased after them.  But now, more than a week after the last post, here comes a report of a remarkable flock still present.  And Sachem’s Head was 45 minutes east of us, just a few minutes off the route home.  We had to give it a try, though hopefully without getting arrested for trespassing.

Neither today’s post, nor the earlier posts, had given specific locations for the birds.  When I had researched these birds 2 weeks earlier I saw that the location given on the e-bird posts was just off-shore to the southeast of the peninsula – though who knows if that was accurate.  And one post had mentioned the birder walked across the road to see the birds from his neighbor’s yard.  En route Laura tried to get an address for the local birder but to no avail.  So that was all we had to go on.

We arrived on the Sachem’s Head peninsula and headed toward the southeast coastline since the e-bird location was likely our best starting point.  In our first view of the coast we spotted some rocks just off-shore, but there were no birds present.  We then drove a bit farther and made our way down to the water on Vineyard Point Road.  As we crossed a low causeway with rocky shoreline to the right and salt marsh to the left, Laura noticed some birds on some distant rocks to the southwest (in the vicinity of Hatch Rock).  We quickly scanned with binocs, picking out 2 Laughing Gulls on the rocks.  I was just about to move on when I noticed two terns flying near the rocks – maybe we had found the right spot.  We quickly pulled over and got out the scopes.  There were indeed 2 Laughing Gulls near the tip of the rocks.  But what we had overlooked with the binocs was the mixed flock of smaller, paler terns sitting nearby.  (In our own defense, the rocks were after all about 2,500 feet away.)  We spent the next several minutes scanning the rocks and picked out 7 Royal Terns, and 8 Forster’s Terns, along with several Laughing and Herring Gulls and a pair of Turnstones. 

These terns were still being reported several days later, meaning they were in the area for more than 2 weeks.  That’s amazing for Royal Terns that don’t typically stick around.  Plus, for a species that is a rarity in CT, this was a remarkable number of birds.  And this was the last week of October which is extremely late for Royal Tern.  In “Connecticut Birds” by Zeranski and Baptist published in 1990, the latest fall departure date was listed as September 25.  Though in recent years there have been a number of late fall sightings - e-bird has a number of other October sightings, and even a few in November. 

Royal Tern was #314 for me in CT, and #1,986 in New England – just 14 more to go to 2,000.  It’s been a good year for me for Terns in New England – 2 Royals in Maine, a Sandwich and Gull-billed in MA, a Royal in RI (though not a new statebird), and now 7 Royals in CT.  I’ve now seen Royal Terns in each Atlantic coastal state from Maine to Florida (except NY), all the Gulf Coast states west to TX, and in CA (see my statebird map below).  It’s quite a rarity in New England though increasing, so I’m happy to have it in 5 New England states (it’s certainly not an expected bird for VT).