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Hi All, This afternoon ( 24 August 2011 ) I had the pleasure to watch a Caspian Tern feeding very close to the shoreline at the Provincial Park picnic area in Cottage Cove, Annapolis County. I initially was watching Herring Gulls picking molluscs and flying up about thirty feet and dropping them onto the rocks to open them for dinner. As I looked farther offshore there were Northern Gannets, a Common Loon, Double Crested Cormorants, a few Common Eiders, and a Harbour Seal just peaking above the surface. As I focused my binoculars further into the distance a bird that seemed to be a gull flew between me and my focus distance. I followed it wondering if it might be a Ring Billed Gull. When I focused on the new bird I realized it was a tern! It was flying west along the shore about twenty to thirty feet off the water's edge with its bill pointing down. It would then circle back and try again. The tail was notched, but not forked, the bird was close to the size of the Herring Gulls nearby. The head was fully black capped, the bill was rather heavy, and the undersides of the primaries were extensively grey. I'm not very good at seeing red, so the bill colour was lost in my colour deficient vision. The highlight was watching the Caspian Tern dive five times, submerging to the point that only its tail and wingtips were visible. Each time it would rise into the air and shake to lose the excess water. On two occasions it was successful in capturing prey and tossed the small fish into the air and tipped its bill upward and swallowed the fish headfirst in one gulp!! George E Forsyth
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