( I welcome being corrected. I am not a knowledgeable bird watcher. I did try to research the bird and received poor information)
When picking up the paper last week, I saw the article on the Artic Tern’s visiting Big Sandy. Of course, as a birder, it immediately caught my eye. If in fact, we had Artic Terns in our wheat fields, every birder in a five-state area would be here right now getting a picture of this rare event; which wouldn’t be bad for the local food establishments until they found out what was easily mistaken for Artic Terns (unless you’re a birder) was instead a flock of Franklin’s Gulls.
I started noticing these birds earlier this spring and had never seen them before. I asked a few of the ol’ timers in the community and they hadn’t seen them before either. I little digging and sure enough they were Franklin’s Gulls. Typically, they migrate through the Big Sandy area as they head up into Canada to breed and raise their young. But with all the rain we received this spring, it created a number of great marshes and ponds that must have been attractive enough to hold them here.
Franklin’s Gulls have been feasting on all the bugs in the fields right now. You might see them hovering over your wheat field. When there’s march and water around, they will eat aquatic bugs too. I haven’t seen any around lately. It could be the hot weather has dried up their favorite marshland. Just like the Artic Terns, these gulls migrate significant miles to get to their winter range (actually summer where they go) which is along the west coast of South America.
As an avid birder, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the variety of birds around the Big Sandy area, especially this year with all the “new” wetlands. Whether its shore birds and ducks in the marshes and ponds or hawks and owls in the grass fields, or the doves and larks hanging out along the roadways, it’s been a great birdwatching summer.
