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Sunday, October 27, 2013

Caspian Tern Band Encounter

Back in August, I saw a banded Caspian Tern at Ellacott Lookout (a.k.a. Hespeler Mill Pond). This is the location where I discovered Great Egrets roosting a few years ago during their post-breeding dispersal.



I snapped these two crumby phone camera shots of the bird through my scope. You can just barely make out the letter band combination on the bird's right leg ("AEA") in the cropped frame below.


I submitted it to the banding office and I just received a reply on Friday.


The bird was banded as a nestling in 2008 at Gull Island (Presqu'ile Provincial Park). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the longevity of a Caspian Tern on the Great Lakes is 12 years, and the longest lived Caspian Tern on record is 26 years. So this guy is still a youngster!
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2 comments:

  1. Blake A. MannOctober 27, 2013 at 7:42 PM

    Always fun to find out where and when a bird was banded!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob BettsJune 1, 2014 at 9:39 AM

    If anyone is interested in an update, I took a photo of the same bird just days ago across from Gull Island at Presqu'ile Provincial Park. I left a comment with the photo mentioning your blog. I hope you don't mind.
    If interested, the link for the photo is:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/105894626@N06/14340229573/

    ReplyDelete