Date: 7/21/25 1:01 pm From: Chris McCreedy via groups.io <cmccreedy...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] White-winged Tern off J St. Monday 21 Jul 2025
The White-winged Tern continues today. It did not seem to be present off of the point at the J Street Bayfront Park when I first arrived slightly before 8a. It began to be called by observers I believe between 830-845. I noted it on a skinny spit while scoping southwest of the point at the end of the southern parking lot, around 500 m southwest of the viewing point. It immediately stood out by its small size, black marking behind the eye that extended toward the crown, and dark markings in the shoulder framing its gray wings while folded. Something startled the group of terns as I set up my scope's phone adaptor, but other birders who were also on it quickly re-located it. It put down to preen *behind* the skinny spit (near a white PVC pipe sticking out of the water that was marked with two black stripes), which made it difficult to see for several minutes, improbably obscured by the skinny spit save for its head and neck. It soon lifted off and commenced to forage/dance/dip along the edge and seemingly above the aquatic rushes and sedges and reeds on the northeastern edge of the artificial island, its movements, size, its gray mantle with dark wingtips and white tail, and its underwing pattern separating it from the other terns. At least one Common Tern was present, with several Forster's and a handful of Black Skimmers. I did not see a Black Tern.
I noticed on the What's App RBA that the WWTE was later reported over Pond 11, visible from Emory Cove's lot, then it moved from Pond 11 and into Pond 12 before noon.
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