Our Nemesis Bird

It's official: The Elegant Term is now our nemesis bird. A nemesis bird is a species you don't have on your life list that constantly eludes you when you try to see it. Three times this week we went to Sandy Hook to see the Elegant Tern that has been there, according to the first photo taken of it, since August 6 though it was misidentified for almost a month as "runt Royal Tern." Still, it has been known to be at one place at Sandy Hook every day for 2 weeks and we, despite spending hours tramping up the Fisherman's Trail, sitting on the beach, walking the beach to the False Hook, and spending still more time sitting on the beach, have not seen the *&%@%$ bird. It seems like everyone else has. Report after report rolls in on eBird, gets posted on Jerseybirds. But not us.

The worst was today. Shari and I packed a lunch, brought a beach blanket, and trudged out to the tidal inlet around 9:30 this morning, about 2 hours after high tide. She was determined that we would sit there until the bird showed up. There were about a dozen birders already there, lining the beach. A couple said they'd seen the bird not too long before we got there, which always makes me think that if we had had left the house earlier, if we hadn't taken the route we did, if have to stop at the rest rooms, if we had walked faster, if, if, if--we'd have seen the bird. But we didn't.

After about 5 hours on the beach, spotting a couple of Forster's Terns, a couple of Black Terns, a couple of Royal Terns even (brief excitement thinking one of the royals might be the bird) mixed in with 300 or so Common Terns, along with gulls, skimmers and Sanderlings, a candidate showed up, found by a birder we'd been talking to while we hung out there. It looked good for Elegant Tern: long orange-red bill, no black on the tip of the bill, shaggy nape, only a little larger than the surrounding Common Terns, but it didn't have a white forehead and when a few birders pulled up pictures of the bird on their smart phones the air started coming out of the balloon. I'd been freezing on the point, stupidly thinking when we set out that it was summer so shorts and t-shirt would suffice, but the wind was wicked and after 5 hours of being sandblasted, we packed it up. The first 2 times we were there I was okay about not seeing the bird. (Thursday afternoon we had rushed up there on a whim when the bird was reported.) This time, just sitting in the wind, I got to wondering why I was doing this and couldn't really come up with a good answer. I subscribe to W.C. Fields maxim:

If at first you don't succeed, try again.
Then give up.
No sense making a fool of yourself. 

I guess I was feeling like a fool.

Here's a list of the birds we did get Sunday, Thursday, and today:

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Piping Plover

American Oystercatcher

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Laughing Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Black Tern

Common Tern

Forster's Tern

Royal Tern

Black Skimmer

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove Merlin

Tree Swallow

Gray Catbird

Eastern Towhee

Saltmarsh Sparrow

Northern Cardinal