Port Perry, ON. July 8 2022. While a car full of adults might ignore hunger pangs for a while, a nursing 8-month old is almost certain to call for immediate satisfaction. It was exactly that set of circumstances that broke our longish journey into several parts today, happily we made each stop somewhere green, shady and mosquito-free.
We stopped for a while at a lakeside park popular with people of all ages and interests: young, old, ice cream and play. I might have been the only one paying attention to bird life, gulls mostly, but especially a steady patrol of terns along the waterfront. From where we sat, I thought they looked like Black Terns, and if so, I wanted a better look. Excusing myself, I returned to our heavily packed car to retrieve my binoculars and camera.
Black Terns as a species are considered to be of ‘Least Concern’ across the Americas, they thrive in the centre of the continent breeding in small colonies on freshwater marshes, At the edges of their range however, Black Terns have declined sharply and are now much less common around the Lower Great Lakes. It’s been a while since I last saw Black Terns and I was keen to get closer.
A small flock, perhaps a dozen, had found good pickings in the matts of vegetation accumulating along the shallow shoreline and quiet backwaters. They formed a constant parade, passing parallel and close to a waterfront path, wheeling suddenly for shallow plunges or picking daintily from the weedy surface. Where open water gave way to a busy marina they veered out and away to circle back to the starting point, and repeat.
I think that in all my years that I have never enjoyed such a privileged opportunity to watch and study Black Terns, they are usually more solitary and too far away. It might be hard to write enthusiastically about a bird that is generally black, sooty black and pale black but their bouncing acrobatic flight and delicate swallow-like lines make up for it. They were difficult to photograph but nevertheless a happy distraction from our journey.
They do have a distinctive flight pattern- a rarely seen treat in Massachusetts. Congratulations on such great looks!