Forster's Terns, Black-headed Gull, Bonie Flock

Looks like Forster's Terns beat Laughing Gull back to Cape May this year, with a dozen resting on the flats off Villas this morning near a marvelous flock of 170 (actual count) Bonaparte's Gulls, which chattered and fed actively in a pool left by the tide. The Black-headed Gull was nearby, fraternizing with Ring-billed Gulls a quarter mile south of the rest. I was viewing from the end of Hudson in the Villas, but the composition of birds there changed continuously as the gulls and terns arrived and departed, so the only way to properly work this area is to, well, work it, from the ferry northward as far as time allows you. Two American Oystercatchers, 100's of Dunlin, and dozens of Sanderlings and Black-bellied Plovers fed on the flats as well.

A few Forster's Terns occasionally winter around Cape May, but not this year that I am aware of. I have to believe someone will get the LAGU award today - it's another nice day, with an obvious movement of Canada Geese northward along the bayshore and Northern Cardinals singing everywhere.