Monomoy N.W.R. Roseate Terns!!!

Today I traveled to Monomoy N.W.R. for tern band re-sighting training. I love Monomoy! The second largest colony of common terns on the Atlantic nests there. Monomoy has a diversity of habitat including dunes, ocean, freshwater/saltwater marshes, and freshwater ponds making it an important island for numerous shorebirds. We had the opportunity to count flocks and re-sight the bands on roseate terns. Re-sighting a "field readable" (a small tiny metal band with a combination of letters and numbers that provides information about the bird and the breeding colony that it is from) was very difficult though super fun. Using an elite level spotting scope is a necessity. The wind was gusting at 20 knots and the sky was overcast which made reading the bands a challenge but kind of fun! I am now confident that I can read bands accurately and distinguish roseate terns from commons. Pretty damn excited to get back in the field and search for roseate terns!!!

I tried digiscoping with my iPhone but the wind was making the scope unsteady.








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