Common tern at Waikanae

[Alan Tennyson]

Another common tern at the Waikanae River Mouth today...

[Michael Szabo]

Nice find. I was there the day before with Oskar Ehrhart but we didn't see one with the larger flock. As per our eBird checklist, we counted 780 adult White-fronted Terns with at least 170 chicks and juveniles: https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S158749996

Unfortunately, while we were there a kite surfer came right up onto the beach near the tern flock at the end of the sandspit and their kite zoomed right over, causing the entire flock to take off and all the chicks and juveniles to 'stampede' as a large group. He could see what he was doing to them but made no attempt to retreat or pull back the kite. Oskar filmed the incident with his phone so once I get the footage from him I'll try to make a more accurate count of the adults and chicks/juveniles.

[Michael Szabo]

Roger Brent Smith reports seeing one there again today with the WFT flock.

[Alan Tennyson]

There was a common tern at Waikanae again yesterday evening. It's belly was getting a little grey & it had a hint of red in the bill.

[sav]

Hi all,

I think that there are at least 2 different Common Terns involved here. The bird that AT saw yesterday was present again this morning - the darkened breast was obvious, along with a completely different shape/structure to the many WF terns present.

I saw no hint of red in the bill though, and I had long and close views.

BTW Common Tern is way more "common" in NZ than people think. Its just a slightly tricky id problem, and more people with better knowledge, with better cameras, are just finding more of them.

cheers

[Alan Tennyson]

A common tern was at Waikanae on Saturday (16 Mar). Its bill looked completely black.

[Michael Szabo]

Hugh Robertson reports an Eastern Common Tern at Waikanae sandspit on Thursday with the White-fronted Tern flock.
https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S165651523