[MDOsprey] POM. JAEGER(yes)-Bridled Tern(no)

Greg Miller (hawk-owl@yahoo.com)
Wed, 8 Sep 1999 19:05:52 -0700 (PDT) 

Howdy All!

Well...the wonders keep happening at Pt Lookout down here in St Marys
County.  I zipped down to Pt Lookout right after work and arrived
around 5:20pm tonight, Sep 8.  I stopped briefly at the sharp curve
onto the causeway, but nothing was there save a few Forster's Terns a
couple Common Terns.  

I decided to drive down to the point proper.  On the way down, I
spotted a small group of fishing boats and a large group of terns
(100+) not far off shore across from the picnic area (C. Bay side). 
Here I found as many as 6 Black Terns at one time (there may have been
more) and at least one Sandwich Terns.  There were also a few Royal
Terns, but the largest mix was of mainly Forster's and Commons.  

Down at the point I noticed the Stasz-mobile and hoped I was in luck
(you know--the kind where Jim already has the bird in his scope and I
walk up and get a killer view).  But such was not the case this
evening.  We both headed back to the Fishing Pier and spent the last
hour and a half of daylight scouting from the Pier.  The terns were in
smaller groups.  Small schools of fish were hitting the surface
regularly, so I anticipate seeing terns for a while here...  

Around 7pm, I found a dark, heavy-flier, just a few feet above the
surface of the water heading South.  "Jim!  Possible Jaeger just below
the horizon heading right!", I chattered excitedly.  Jim was on the
bird in an instant.  "Looks like a Pomarine.", Jim said with quite a
bit more calmness than I was feeling.

Although I've seen hundreds of jaegers (except for a few pelagics--once
had 12 Poms in Monterey--most of my life's jaegers were seen at Gambell
last spring--400+ birds of all 3 sp. in 3 days), this is a family of
birds I never tire of seeing...the pirate of the sea!  Soon our jaeger
started bullying and badgering a tern spreading it's wings and fanning
it's tail as it maneuvered with the tern.  Even though we were at a
great distance I could see the distinct white flash in the primaries. 
Cool.  A POMARINE JAEGER in St Marys County no less.

Jim smiled easily as he added yet another tick to his burgeoning
Maryland year list.  For me, it was a Maryland milestone--life bird
#300 for the state.  I was hoping to add Bridled Tern as a good
milestone.  But the jaeger was a good consolation prize!

-Greg Miller
Hollywod, MD
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