Gull-billed Tern

Status Rare vagrant. In an interview with Harry Piers in 1902, Richard Bouteillier reported this tern on Sable Island as "rare, sometimes rather plentiful .... breeds." McLaren (1981a) viewed this as "tantalizing", since Bouteillier certainly knew the three usual terns. However, it occurs today only as a rare visitor. The first recent record is of two well-described birds at West Lawrencetown Beach, Halifax County, on 2 August 1963 (C.R.K. Allen, L.B. Macpherson). The remaining records are all of single birds: at Conrad Beach, Halifax County, on 29 October 1967; at Cherry Hill Beach, Lunenburg County, on 17 August 1975; at Three Fathom Harbour, Halifax County, between 24 July and 1 August 1979 (photographed); at Pinkneys Point, Yarmouth County, on 28 May 1980; at East Lawrencetown, Halifax County, between 19 and 24 June 1980; at Cherry Hill on 20 September 1980; on 1 May 1982 at Crescent Beach, Lunenburg County; and on 17 July 1984 at Cow Bay, Halifax County.

Remarks This nearly white, short-tailed, stout-billed tern is at home in warmer waters, breeding north to New York State on the east coast, and occasionally wandering northward.