Wednesday, July 23, 2008

new bird of the day

My job today was to drive a boat around the shoreline of a large, wonderfully clear lake and map and identify the emergent vegetation. All this in partly cloudy, 80 degree weather. Not a bad gig if you can get it. Even if you have to work with the intern. (No really, he's a great guy, I just don't like having "teaching others what their future job may entail" as part of my own job description, for more than a day or two. That's just how I am. Oh well.)

In the process, we encountered this bird, and I happened to have my camera ready! How often does that happen? I knew right away it wasn't one of the usual ring billed gulls, but my mistake was thinking it was still a gull. After getting back to the office, and comparing the picture to my Sibley's guide, it turned out to be...a Forster's tern, adult non-breeding plumage. I don't think they occur around here, in late July, too often. Anyway, it was maybe a first for me and a great chance to show the intern about looking at the whole picture. I don't know anyone else around my office who takes the time to identify birds.

6 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Cool tern!! It DOES sound like you have a sweet job today. Lucky you Deb.


see you Saturday- can't wait!!!!

nina at Nature Remains. said...

Good for you, Deb.
I like to have a chance every once in a while to share nature watching/discovery with others, too.
What's really satisfying is having them come back--excited about something THEY've found. Eager to share it with you.

One good tern deserves another.

R.Powers said...

A favorite tern of mine.

Omelay said...

we take time at work to identify most everything--not that i remember much.

Deb said...

Lynne- just getting back to this post. Yesterday was so fun! It was good to see you!

Nina- "one good tern"...haha. I'm glad this inTERN seems to tolerate my bird observations!

FC- I've probably seen them before, but it's nice when I have the time to observe them up close.

Karl- I've mostly been identifying aquatic plants, and getting stumped by them a few times. Birds are easy by comparison.

RuthieJ said...

Pretty tern! Good for you Deb. Thanks for sharing it with us.