An Arctic Seabird Makes a Rare Wyoming Stopover
An immature long-tailed jaeger, a circumpolar seabird that typically breeds in the high Arctic and winters over the southern oceans, spent two weeks documented at East Allen Lake in Carbon County between October 2 and October 17. The species is rarely found inland.
The bird was first documented by Tyrell Perry on October 2. When Don Jones saw the record on eBird later that day, he and his dad, George Jones, drove out to find it. Altogether, 15 people photo-documented the jaeger through October 17. The photographs show an immature bird with brownish plumage and a pattern of white markings, contrasting with the white, pale gray, black-capped appearance of a breeding adult.
Tracking the Jaeger Across Carbon and Albany Counties
Continuing a long-standing custom, individuals from the Cheyenne – High Plains Audubon Society joined forces with the Laramie Audubon Society on October 17 to explore the Laramie Plains lakes.
While some members drove the 57 miles over to Medicine Bow, others toured the Laramie Plains lakes instead. At Lake Hattie, birders observed a lesser black-backed gull. While that species normally winters off the East Coast or the Great Lakes, it is becoming a regular Wyoming migrant after initially drawing widespread attention as a celebrity sighting when individuals first began appearing a few years ago.
At East Allen Lake, a wildlife habitat unit managed jointly by the Bureau of Land Management and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on scrubby flats, the jaeger stayed close to a local landmark. In many of the bird’s photographs, a Sabine’s gull appears nearby. Despite “jaeger” being German for hunter, long-tailed jaegers frequently steal food from gulls, making the two rare fall migrants accidental traveling companions in the interior United States.
Expanding Horizons at Home and Away
While some birders chase rare regional migrants, others encounter exotic species through international travel. Cheyenne Audubon chapter members recently attended a presentation by Pete Arnold regarding his birdwatching trip to Egypt and a voyage down the Nile on a dahabiya, a traditional river sailboat.
Arnold captured images of thousands of avian subjects, observing recognizable genera that had adapted to various local ecosystems, such as the pied kingfisher, Squacco heron, purple heron, gray heron, whiskered tern, ferruginous duck, black-winged stilt, Egyptian vulture, hooded crow, Eurasian spoonbill, and Egyptian house sparrow. He also documented families absent from North America, such as bee-eaters, wagtails, hoopoes, thick-knees, and sunbirds. Other species, like the cattle egret, have successfully bridged the gap by spreading from Africa to North America independently.
For local observers, the appearance of Arctic and international visitors highlights how avian ranges stretch across continents and oceans, whether spotted on scrubby flats in Carbon County or carved into ancient Egyptian tombs.
