Date: 7/12/25 4:38 pm From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [CALBIRDS] San Diego WHITE-WINGED TERN
It's Now 4:30 PM, Saturday, and just before posting this message below, Matt S. re-found the bird flying around Pond 12, still presumably hopelessly far for viewing from public sites (see below), but now truly confirmed as a White-winged Tern. More photos will be posted later.
Back on Weds., July 9th, I found a bacic-plumaged (one-year-old) "Black Tern" on Chula Vista Wildlife Area property as viewed VERY distantly from the west end of the J Street/Marina Parkway parking lot. At the time, the bird was clearly a Black-type Tern in basic plumage, but even with good light (mid-morning, marine overcast), I struggled initially with the ID because the bird did not appear to show a dark shoulder spur down onto the upper sides of the breast. So, I waited for the bird to fly and saw a whitish rump in some lights. These two characters favor White-winged Tern, a Eurasian species with two previous California records from HUM and MTY in the late 1990s. But then I also saw a dusky upper surface of the tail and a darker leading edge to the folded wing at rest, characters I thought favored Black Tern. So, I ended up calling it a Black and chalked up some alternate cues as being partly due to the long distance involved. Basically, I was scoping from J Street across the entire cove of the Bay to the SW, to the peninsula edge to the right of where the Osprey nest pole is and the general area where the Gray-tailed Tattler was several years ago. The bird has been looked for again several times since then on a couple days by me and others from J Street but with no success.
Before I go any further, because what follows involves the Salt Works and National Wildlife Refuge property, know that the Salt Works and surrounding salt marsh are very much off-limits at this time of year to the public because of the nesting Snowy Plovers and mass of nesting terns (something over 35,000 nests of Elegant Terns this year!, not to mention plenty of Royals, Forster's, Leasts, and Skimmers). So there is NO WAY anyone should attempt to get inside on their own. And clearly do not go past any wildlife refuge "no entry" signs. Expect to be cited or arrested.
Fast forward to today, and Matt Sadowski and Robert Patton are doing their tern and plover work inside the Salt Works, and they find this basic-plumaged tern, along with a new breeding-plumaged Black Tern, frequenting the area of Pond 12 during the late morning and early afternoon--right after the marine layer retreated, the sun came out, and the glare increased. The two birds were mostly at the opposite (east) end of Pond 12 from where they were, partly smothered in Elegant Terns and very distant and harshly lit. Both observers were thinking probable Black Tern on the basic bird (e.g., didn't see an obvious pale rump). But at one point the two birds flew to their end of the pond, and Matt got a series of photos looking up at the bird in question. He then shared that photo with me. We, and others, were both struck by the total lack of the shoulder bar, clean white underparts, and a potentially paler crown than a Black Tern shows, but other characters were not visible, and the bill length perhaps fit Black Tern OK. I then shared the one photo with several out-of-state folks with good White-winged Tern experience....and voila, they think it is indeed a White-winged Tern. Based on the one photo.
Pond 12 is the pond north of Pond 23, the Little Stint pond. One can scope Pond 12 from the end of 11th, 10th, and 8th, and from the end of the peninsula that sticks out from the south end of the Biological Study Area parking lot on the Silver Strand. But even with a good scope and doing so in the morning with a marine layer so good light and with minimal distortion, it is still a very, very long ways away. One can ID Black Terns flying around that pond, as we did several years ago. But being able to tell a basic-plumaged White-winged Tern from a basic-plumaged Black Tern at that distance would be impossible. Unless, perhaps the bird comes to the WEST end of Pond 12, and then being at the end of 8th or off the study area parking lot peninsula MIGHT work. Or......hope that at some point it returns to where I first saw it on July 9th, southwest of J Street, or perhaps get extremely lucky and get it even on the J Street mudflats proper, but that hasn't yet worked out.
What would presumably be the best course of action is have people spread out at all three or four of these sites (J Street, 11th, 10th, 8th, off study area parking), and then if someone carefully assesses that the bird is truly visible, then immediately send out that news on the What's App group AND on this listserv, so that folks nearby can make a bee-line..... But, to be honest, this situation is fraught with the distinct possibilities of faulty claims, all the mass of somewhat similar-looking birds present, desperation-mode setting in to see the bird, etc. etc. So, PLEASE everyone be really, really, really, careful with one's reports. If you do find the easier-to-see breeding-plumaged Black Tern, then carefully study any nearby birds, and do report just the Black, as that is a possible good starting point.
Once there is an eBird or other link set up later today where Matt's photos can be viewed, we will post news of that site.
