As far as the numbers of terns seen and when, there were probably around 50 + black terns at Wye Marsh.sorry I haven't been giving numbers of these birds, as they're extremely hard to count as the females are on the nests currently and I've been out focussing on how many rail calls I'm getting back. There were around 30 or more birds in the air at any given time (and I'm assuming one other bird on the nest for every bird in the air at this time of the year.) The black terns have actually become common at the west end of the marsh, and are seen just about as much as we see the red winged blackbirds. They've got nests in every possible spot in Preston cell that could possibly support a nest, and the entire cell which in previous years have supported two or three colonies is supporting 5 or so colonies that really have no lines to distinguish between them.they're everywhere!
Yesterday (June 6th) between 4:30am and 9am we had responding to our calls 4 least bitterns, 2 virginia rails, 2 soras, probably 5 or so pied billed grebes (lots of calls from different areas, but they were likely only a few individuals moving around) Likely between 5-8 common moorhens calling, and 1 green heron, 1 oriole, 1 caspian tern, 1 trumpeter swan (there are apparently no nests in that area of the marsh, but the one lone trumpeter is always seen there) lots of marsh wrens (over 50) lots of red winged blackbirds (with some fledglings, they're becoming a bit quieter these days (over 50) 2 blue winged teal, 1 mallard, and 1 pair of geese with a gosling. There was one yellow rail seen on the weekend.sorry I can't be more specific than this, but I unfortunately wasn't around to see it. Sorry I've been not too great with advertising my numbers.I'm kind of new to this. :-) Julie Kee Research Assistant Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre [EMAIL PROTECTED] 705 526 7809 ext. 205
