Elegant Tern early arrival – February in San Diego

[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2014] – A heavy rain front was coming through Pt. La Jolla late this afternoon when I spotted a “light action” tern making its way through the precipitation southwards. I had seen many Royal Terns already but this one was definitely a lightweight example. I quickly whipped the rain cover off the camera lens and fired off some photographs through the opaque rain. Sure enough it was my first Elegant Tern Thalasseus elegans of the 2014 season! It is always nice to see the first arrivals of this well named very elegant looking tern. In fact the species has been observed in San Diego County in the last couple of days by a few lucky observers. The San Diego County Bird Atlas (Unitt, 2004) notes typical arrival around the third week of March with reports as early as the first week of March. In recent years this seems to have pushed ahead in the calendar. Evidently in 2014 they have made an early arrival again in San Diego County.

Elegant Tern

Elegant Tern – Pt. La Jolla, La Jolla, San Diego County, California 28 Feb 2014

Elegant Tern

Elegant Tern – Pt. La Jolla, La Jolla, San Diego County, California 28 Feb 2014

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