Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
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rowey
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Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Thoughts please. Was roosting with the WFTern colony at the end of the spit this morning around 8ish. I am guessing Arctic???
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Amber Calman
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
I am really bad at terns, but looking at my guide is it Antarctic? Wait no, looked agian, i think i could agree arctic
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Brent Stephenson
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Absolutely can't be Arctic based on stunning breeding plumage (Arctic will have blackish bill and legs right now - see my images of the one off Bluff in other thread) and the legs look a little too long also. Posture and shape are all wrong for Arctic also. I'd have to say Antarctic based on this image and not considering anything further afield. Pretty good record for an Antarctic this time of year, but the weather has been pushing things north this season!
Cheers,
Cheers,
Brent Stephenson
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ - Great birds, real birders
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ - Great birds, real birders
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SomesBirder
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Would that make this the first Antarctic tern to be recorded from the South Island?
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Brent Stephenson
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
No, there would be a few records I would think...but can't be certain. Definitely worth a rare bird report for this record.
Brent Stephenson
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ - Great birds, real birders
Wrybill Birding Tours, NZ - Great birds, real birders
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SomesBirder
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Brent Stephenson wrote:No, there would be a few records I would think...but can't be certain. Definitely worth a rare bird report for this record.
NZBO says that they have never been recorded north of Foveaux Strait.
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Jan
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Did the council rangers get to see it? Phil Crutchley was doing that section i think. He's good on terns.
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Davidthomas
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Lucky buggers!
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rowey
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Interesting feedback. Another couple of photos. Not great quality but different angles. I forgot about the census today. Hopefully someone else saw it.
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andrewcrossland
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Re: Tern ID at Kaitorete Spit end.
Quite a few people were out at Kaitorete Spit tip today and also last week. Thankfully only Rowey saw the bird and got some good ID and record shots. The reason that no-one else saw it is because the wader census folk and (hopefully also) the group of bird photographers who followed them stayed a sufficient distance away from the W/F Tern and Black-billed Gull colony and therefore this bird was essentially invisible to them.
Lets hope that if anyone else photographs it then thats due to a chance encounter somewhere else on Lake Ellesmere.
Just wearing my sheriff's hat (dusting off my tresspass book, popping a couple of shells in the shot gun and readying the hounds) - We now have Rowey's great pics so lets leave it at that eh? By all means, folks with scopes standing at a respectful distance and not causing the terns and gulls to take flight, have a go and try to pick the bird out through your optics. Thats what I'll be doing too. And fellow photographers with mega long range lenses, yep, go for it, if you get lucky then you got lucky. But there's no need for any more close up shots eh?
W/F terns have nested about 5x in the last 25 years on Lake Ellesmere and they're of conservation importance in this area, so it would be kinda nice if they succeeded in breeding this current season. They are fickle breeders at the best of times, but there's a colony of hungry Black-backed Gulls right next door and they'll be in to feast on eggs and chicks if the terns are flushed off their nests for more than a couple of minutes.
With the greatest respect to fellow bird photographers, if we want some record shots of W/F terns at nest then there's lots of easily accessible colonies around the country where risks of unintended consequences are less and where birds are relatively well habituated to people. Easy to get those shots there eh? These terns out in the open at Kaitorete Spit tip are wild and wily, in a very exposed location and rarely see people. Does anyone really really need to get our record shots of nesting terns at this particular colony? Now that Rowey has contributed these great pic of his poss Antarctic Tern (BTW - if accepted, the first record for NZ, Canterbury and Lake Ellesmere) there's no need for anyone else to photograph this bird is there?
No criticsm of Rowey expressed or implied in this post. And, I'm very pleased to report that the W/F terns colony were all happily on nests hours after his 8am visit and I'm sure he only got that crisp, clear shot of the tern posted above as he saw it initially from afar, and realising its significance he crawled painfully on his belly over burning sand for 400m to get that lovely photo. but as I've suggested a few times already, the ornithological world, science and society at large has these photos now, so lets hope no-one approaches this colony closer than 200m from now on?
cheers
Lets hope that if anyone else photographs it then thats due to a chance encounter somewhere else on Lake Ellesmere.
Just wearing my sheriff's hat (dusting off my tresspass book, popping a couple of shells in the shot gun and readying the hounds) - We now have Rowey's great pics so lets leave it at that eh? By all means, folks with scopes standing at a respectful distance and not causing the terns and gulls to take flight, have a go and try to pick the bird out through your optics. Thats what I'll be doing too. And fellow photographers with mega long range lenses, yep, go for it, if you get lucky then you got lucky. But there's no need for any more close up shots eh?
W/F terns have nested about 5x in the last 25 years on Lake Ellesmere and they're of conservation importance in this area, so it would be kinda nice if they succeeded in breeding this current season. They are fickle breeders at the best of times, but there's a colony of hungry Black-backed Gulls right next door and they'll be in to feast on eggs and chicks if the terns are flushed off their nests for more than a couple of minutes.
With the greatest respect to fellow bird photographers, if we want some record shots of W/F terns at nest then there's lots of easily accessible colonies around the country where risks of unintended consequences are less and where birds are relatively well habituated to people. Easy to get those shots there eh? These terns out in the open at Kaitorete Spit tip are wild and wily, in a very exposed location and rarely see people. Does anyone really really need to get our record shots of nesting terns at this particular colony? Now that Rowey has contributed these great pic of his poss Antarctic Tern (BTW - if accepted, the first record for NZ, Canterbury and Lake Ellesmere) there's no need for anyone else to photograph this bird is there?
No criticsm of Rowey expressed or implied in this post. And, I'm very pleased to report that the W/F terns colony were all happily on nests hours after his 8am visit and I'm sure he only got that crisp, clear shot of the tern posted above as he saw it initially from afar, and realising its significance he crawled painfully on his belly over burning sand for 400m to get that lovely photo. but as I've suggested a few times already, the ornithological world, science and society at large has these photos now, so lets hope no-one approaches this colony closer than 200m from now on?
cheers