I was scoping the shorebird habitat at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area about a week ago when I noticed that several of the roosting CASPIAN TERNS were color-banded.
I jotted down a couple of the combos (or, as much as I could see) and submitted them to mybandedtern. I just heard back from Yasuko Suzuki with some interesting results.
The first tern I reported was banded as a chick near Moses Lake, Washington in 2011.
The second tern was banded as a chick at a colony in the Copper River Delta (near Cordova, Alaska) in 2011. She said that only six chicks received color bands that year so it's pretty amazing that we turned up one of them.
Lastly was a bird that I couldn't quite read all the bands on. However, we know that 17 birds received the color combo I was able to see on the left leg. These 17 birds were banded between 2000-2007 in states like Washington, Oregon, and California.
If you've seen any banded terns out there, look below to see if they match up. And don't forget to submit your sightings to mybandedtern.
CASPIAN TERN BANDED IN 2011 AT GOOSE ISLAND IN POTHOLES RESERVOIR NEAR MOSES LAKE, WASHINGTON:
Band Information : Alphanumeric
Left Top : No Band
Left Middle : White
Left Bottom : Light Blue
Right Band Color: Yellow
Right Code Color: Black
Right Alphanumeric Code: F120
CASPIAN TERN BANDED IN 2011 IN THE COPPER RIVER DELTA, ALASKA:
Band Information : Alphanumeric
Left Top : White
Left Middle : Black
Left Bottom : Metal
Right Band Color: Yellow
Right Code Color: Black
CASPIAN TERNS BANDED IN 2000-2007 IN WA, OR, AND CA:
Band Information : Color Band
Left Top : Red
Left Middle : Orange
Left Bottom : Red
Right Top : Unknown
Right Middle : Unknown
Right Bottom : Unknown
