Mystery tern

[Shantanu Phukan <phukan@email.unc.edu>]

Dear Carolinabirders: 
With all this miserable ice and no heat I migrated down to Fort Fisher
and got a room for two nights. So wonderful that this should happen to
coincide with the advent of the King Eider (a lifer for me) which I kept
company for over an hour as it fed and lingered off the beach. I was
surprised to find a lone Osprey winign its way over the Battery and
heading NORTH. I thought they left us completely for the winter.

Anyway, also at the Battery I saw a tern I could not identify. It had a
soliodly black cap and a black bill. It seemed larger than the Forster's
of which there was a flock of about 60 roosting on the beacvh and ALL of
them were in winter plumage with that black eye-patch. This mystery tern
had such a solidly black beak that it was not a Royal Tern. It was also
smaller and less chesty than a Royal. At any other time of year I would
have said Sandwich, but I thought they were summer residents only. ANy
ideas anyone?

Oh, by the way, what was really delightful was not one, or two but FOUR
Shrikes on the stretch between the where Ft Fiosher starts and the Oaks
at the Civil War Museum.

Shantanu Phukan