Wow, Orange County ARCTIC TERNS!

This afternoon Karen Miller reported several tern species at Glenmere Lake. Meanwhile John Haas had 18 terns at the Bashakill which would prove to be ARCTIC TERNS. I was dying at work, as you can imagine. Then, I saw a report on the NYS list serve for Arctic Terns in Westchester County. I knew I had to get to Glenmere after work if the birds stuck around. Linda Scrima kept me posted, and I ran for the birds after work. There were 7 individuals present, all in constant flight, quite distant, feeding over the lake. Linda left and had one of her photos confirmed as an ARCTIC TERN! I took over 1,000 photos, and this evening I reviewed them and could not find any individual which didn’t look like an Arctic to me. Apparently this is a first county record for Orange County, so that’s pretty exciting!

All photos ARCTIC TERNS at Glenmere Lake on 05/13/22.

9 thoughts on “Wow, Orange County ARCTIC TERNS!”

  1. Your pictures are SO good! I took about 600 so I was glad to see you took 1000. šŸ˜‰ Mine were mostly distant. Life bird for me and you know how hard it is to get those without traveling!!! It turned out to be an exciting day. I am so glad you got to see these birds!

    1. Thanks so much Miller, and especially thanks for finding and reporting them. Matt

  2. Matt,
    Excellent photos, so glad you had good light. Our terns departed just before noon and the light was bad most of the morning. That said, our birds all proved to be Arctic Terns as well, 20 in all. Congratulations to you and all who got to see these birds! This one was off the charts!! John

    1. Wow, that’s just incredible. Off the charts indeed. As you say, you never know when the next big thing is going to happen! Matt

  3. Wonderful photos, Matt. You prove the point so well: sometimes you need to take 1,000 images just to get the best one.

    1. Especially when the birds are miles out! And I learned a while back that with terns in flight you’ll get way more throwaways than good shots. I was happy to just be able to document such and extraordinary event. Thanks for checking in Tom. Matt

  4. Missed them at Lake Tappen and Glennmere but got them at Assunpink on Sunday afternoon Great shots as usual

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