A black tern (marked by red arrow) resting on Gandy Beach, which is a Tampa Bay beach on the causeway of the Gandy Bridge.
Thanks to a post by Ron Smith of USF’s BRDBRAIN listserve, I saw my first black tern today.
I’ve lived in Florida all my life and have paid pretty close attention to birds and I’ve seen a lot of terns, but never a black tern.
This afternoon Suzie and I took a drive across town to Gandy beach, and sure enough, there they were, probably a dozen or so mixed in with laughing gulls, common terns, sandwich terns, ruddy turnstones and short-billed dowitchers in their rusty summer plumage.
We got a pretty good look at them until some bare-chested yahoo in an SUV came roaring up the beach at water’s edge, scattering all the birds.
We did see a photographer on the beach with a long lens, presumably getting some great photos of the birds. One day I’ll get a real camera…
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I was there around 6pm with my long lens. Saw my first black tern as well. I had read there were over 700 of them on Friday but I couldn’t get there after work. It would have been a sight to see.
Hi Dina, that was probably you that we saw with the long lens. The time stamp on the first photo I shot was 6:12 pm. I had no idea the black terns were around this area. I’ve never seen them out on the Gulf beach.
I had never seen one before. I left Gandy and drove back home over the Courtney Campbell Causeway and stopped at the beach on the Clearwater side and saw a handful there as well. I guess they migrate through.