John Kricher
Bridled Tern. All photographs by the author.
On July 11, 2026, Wayne Petersen and I drove to the Scituate Lighthouse parking lot in the hopes of seeing a vagrant Bridled Tern. Unsurprisingly, the parking lot was well inhabited by birders. We immediately saw Brian Vigorito and asked about the tern. He said it was sitting on a white car a few rows from us. We arrived at about 10:20 am, and for the next hour as birders mingled in happy triumph, I intently watched the Bridled Tern atop what turned out to be Linda Ferraresso’s SUV. The tern apparently knew a birder’s car when it saw one.
It is not usual to have a vagrant, indeed a mega-rare bird, on such convenient display. First, what was it doing in Scituate? Second, what accounted for its nonchalance among dozens of people, birders and nonbirders alike?
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