Common Tern - Hawkes Bay

[sav]

Hi all,

Wayne Twydle found a near breeding plumage Common Tern at Waitangi, just South of Napier, on Friday and it is still present this morning.

cheers

[tim]

The Common tern is almost 100% breeding plumage with just a bit of black missing near the bill.
Very cool to see one around here.

[philbattley]

Can't match Tim's awesome photo, but I was in Hawkes Bay yesterday and thanks to Bernie Kelly and Denise Fastier got shown the Common Tern. Great to see one in breeding plumage and get a few rather distant shots of the bird with all the NZ gulls and three other tern species.

Cheers, Phil

[sav]

This morning I had another go at the Common Tern at Waitangi. I didn't find it in the flock of c70 White-fronts (and one Black-fronted) but I did find another, different, Common Tern. This was (I think?) a first-year bird, still with a decent carpal bar, and very dark primaries, and incomplete black cap. The scapular tips were obviously white, giving a grey/white/almost black rear end.

Add 2 Bitterns showing well and it was a good morning!

cheers