You were right the first time! Definitely White-winged Blacks in your
photos.
Cheers, Chris.
On 02/05/2013 08:42 PM, Chris Baxter wrote:
Hi All
I recently posted quite a long list of bird observations on Birdpedia.
Unfortunately I was a bit premature with one of these observations: my
listing of 3 immature White-winged Black Tern at Rush Lagoon on KI is
incorrect. It should have been immature Whiskered Terns. I have never seen
immature marsh terns on KI until now and was mislead by the dark 'ear-muff'
head markings; an apparently white rump band on one of the birds; pale band
across upper median and greater wing coverts and that the three immature
birds kept to themselves, foraged differently to 15 br plumaged Whiskered
Terns that were present and were swooped on by adult Whiskered Terns on
several occasions. However, yesterday I went back and was able to study the
birds at much closer range (weather was fine and calm and not blowing a
howling SE) and I had all of these birds fluttering close about me as I
stood out in the middle of the shallow lagoon! This time the young birds
were in close association with the adult birds. They mimicked them in every
way: feeding behaviour, size, call (yes, heard one call-that was a
clincher!); white rump band seemed to have been an abherration (it had
disappeared!!); 'ear-muff' markings were lower part of incomplete black cap.
Anyway, enough of that. The long and short of it is I jumped to a wrong
conclusion and I sincerely apologise for that. I managed to take a couple of
poor shots of these birds yesterday and have posted them on my flickr site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbaxterki/ for anybody who wants to look at
them to confirm my ID. No body else has observed these birds but me and so
it has not been possible to get a second opinion - the pics I put on Flickr
will allow this to happen. I appreciate any feedback and comments.
Kind Regards
Chris Baxter
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