An Extreme Rarity

     On Saturday September 20th, 2014, I went down to Cape May to search for a bird being seen there that had only been seen 3 other times in the United States; the Whiskered Tern.  Once we got down there, we immediately began searching through the large flocks of terns on the beaches seeing only Forester's, Common, and Royal Terns.  After having no luck seeing the bird, we went to other areas to see what else was around.  Disappointingly, there was very little activity throughout the rest of the park, so we went back to devoting our time to searching for this bird.  After a few more hours of scanning the beaches, we finally came up to a very promising looking flock.  There were dozens of birders with scopes observing the terns, so we walked up to them and without even asking, one of them said he had the rarity in his scope and offered for us to take a look.  We all looked at the Whiskered Tern with great amazement, even though it isn't a very stunning bird.  After getting the best looks possible, we headed back home knowing that we were all very lucky to have seen the bird.

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Whiskered Tern (Center)

Whiskered Tern (Center)