Terns, Terns, Terns...

It seemed wherever I went this morning it was a day of nice terns (no nasty turns or wrong turns!!). Our regular Wednesday morning walk at Cape May Point State Park initially provided us with our first fledgling Forster's Terns of the year, sitting on mud hummocks in Bunker Pond. A while later, Chris Vogel informed us that a Sandwich Tern had joined the loafing terns on the wooden jetty at Bunker Pond (always a spot worth checking over the next couple of months) and this duly became the last bird and a fitting finale to a great walk today. After the walk, Steve Weis and I had a quick look at Sunset Beach to check if the Common Loon was still around that had been there yesterday; it wasn't, but a Gull-billed Tern called right over our heads and headed north up the beach. This was shortly followed by a Royal Tern heading south. Not a bad start to the day!

Our walk this morning also turned up four Solitary Sandpipers, the first Purple Martin youngsters that I have seen out on the wing this year and fledgling Barn and Northern Rough-winged Swallows. An adult Black-crowned Night Heron was probably a migrant on the wander. I heard a second hand rumor that the Black-bellied Whistling-duck might be in the state park - it's worth a look!

Sandwich Tern on the railing at Bunker Pond this morning [photo by Karl Lukens].

A Common Yellowthroat continues to brighten our state park walks on Wednesday mornings [photo by Karl Lukens].

Star find in the butterfly world of late was this Great Spangled Fritillary in Tom Reed's garden at Reeds Beach on July 5th. Those tatty wings seem to tell a tale, this individual has travelled a fair distance... [photo by Tom Reed].