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…
