Whiskered Tern, Waituna Lagoon

[FraserGurney]

Posting this for Bradley Shields who found a whiskered tern at Waituna Lagoon, Southalnd at midday today. Accessed from the tracks at the end of Waghorn Road.

[Michael Szabo]

Great find Bradley. Now all 3 overseas migrant marsh terns currently in NZ!

[bradley_birdsnz]

Well it has certainly been a good year for terns so far. White-winged black, arctic, common, black and now whiskered! Lets hope for even more this year!

I first spotted the Whiskered tern among a group of 36 black fronted tern at 11:40 am today. The bird was sitting down with its tail high in the air, the red beak was easily noticeable through a spotting scope from around 150m.

There is no real track down to the estuary but if you walk along the boardwalk towards the viewing platform then around 100 meters shy of the platform you will see the manuka is fairly open underneath. walk through this and down through the rushes to hit the edge of the estuary. From here it is a straight shot to where the terns are which is directly south of where you should come out onto the estuary. It is pretty dry in there at the moment so shouldn't be too muddy. The tern flock was visible from the carpark but a bit too far to pick out the whiskered from the black fronts. Below is a map of the route I took, the circled area is where the tern flock was hanging out.

Other birds in the area of note where 66 banded dotterel 2 ruddy turnstone and 3 fernbird.

Ill load proper images on in a day or two when I have my card reader.

Good luck to anyone going for it.

Bradley

[sjacques]

Still present up until 2100 at least, same area, enjoyed by two very happy local birders. Well done Bradley, great observer skill and an excellent find!

Cheers,
Sean

[wazzagonewild]

The whiskered tern is still here this morning. Also a white-winged black tern. Both associating with 26+ black-fronted terns.

[sjacques]

Got any pics of the WWBT Warren? An adult bird?

Cheers,
Sean

[bradley_birdsnz]

Here are some of the proper images of the Whiskered tern from yesterday. heat haze was pretty bad and some images are heavily cropped.

more images to come

Happy Birding

[bradley_birdsnz]

more photos

[wazzagonewild]

Hi Sean, I think an immature WWBT, but I'm not familiar with the plumage variation of this species so open to others thoughts. A couple of pics of the birds attached below.

DSC_2289-01.jpeg (250.17 KiB) Viewed 1364 times

DSC_2343-01.jpeg (150.55 KiB) Viewed 1364 times

DSC_2455-01.jpeg (232.7 KiB) Viewed 1364 times

[sjacques]

Nice one Warren, that certainly wasn't with the flock of 45 black-fronts last night. Must be a bit of turnover of birds (please excuse the pun).

I agree with immature, and would take a punt that this is a Northern cycle bird in first winter plumage.

Well done, and another one on the board for visiting birders, us locals need to pull our fingers out!

Cheers,
Sean