![Race Point dunes](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SpGSqejmLzI/AAAAAAAAAkA/C-EBC_TpqHY/s400/Race_Point_7862.jpg)
Continuing my post from this morning, I made it to Race Point Beach at the very tip of the Cape by afternoon. It was hot, the sand so hot that you couldn't walk barefoot on it; even hot for this Greater Black-backed Gull who was cooling off by keeping its beak open:
![greater black-backed gull](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SpGC6MsVLLI/AAAAAAAAAjg/G2YcIqEJaxQ/s400/Greater_Black-backed_Gull_7809.jpg)
Whereas Brattleboro was under a cloud of thunderstorms, here at the beach people were having a good time.
![Race Point Beach](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SpGSA7tzi0I/AAAAAAAAAj4/2RLXwIwk9_U/s400/Race_Point_Beach_7843.jpg)
Small flocks of terns were flying parallel to the shore, so fast, and hard to catch a decent photo - in fact I had to discard about 90% of my photos. On closer inspection at home I verfied that most of them were Common Terns,(See correction below. On this photo only the bird on the lower right is a Common Tern; the others are Roseates}
![Common Terns](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SpF-K7tc3TI/AAAAAAAAAjQ/RRs-MHepG2k/s400/Common_Terns_7838.jpg)
But there were a couple of Roseate Terns - juveniles:
![juvenile Roseate Tern](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SpF1BfiNwMI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/-kudz70HiVA/s400/Roseate_Tern_juvenile_7725.jpg)
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SpGh3mneTjI/AAAAAAAAAkI/-RUDDkeWEYw/s400/Roseate_Tern_juvernile_7726.jpg)
At Race Point I also bought a map and the Mass Audubon publication "Birding Cape Cod" to help me plan for Saturday. Exhausted and exhilarated I drove to Hyannis where I had made a reservation at a motel, and after a supper of a box of graham crackers brought from home and two ice-cold Pepsis out of the machine, I fell into bed to get up at 4 AM the following morning.
8/30/09 Correction: After checking with some experts it turns out that most of the terns that I saw were adult and juvenile Roseates:
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/Sprwi6XmauI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/-k-8Z1Bp2Dw/s400/Tern_2_7841.jpg)
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SprweUHgiRI/AAAAAAAAAoI/9-TUvO6ELOk/s400/Tern_1_7838.jpg)
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_B_5jvio717o/SprwQfh7CLI/AAAAAAAAAn4/B3RNQuINqGs/s400/Tern_7841.jpg)
Wonderful photos of the roseate - congrats!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris. It's pure luck, of course, because the terns are flying by too fast to see any details. I can't actually say I SAW them, I only saw them on the photos....
ReplyDelete