Turn eggs

[Rosemarie Hughes]

Hello - I was out for a walk this evening and ran across these eggs - I think they are turn eggs ??? We were out by the old paintball course along the Skagway River.

Please let me know if these are in fact turn eggs....they were still warm 😊

Thank you, Rosemarie 

[Furbish - Klensch]

Nice photos! - most likely they are not Arctic Tern eggs.  One good clue would be what type of adult bird you noticed as you approached the eggs - since the eggs were warm, an incubating adult may have just flown away.

Based on the location and our experience with birds in that area, they most probably are Short-billed (formerly Mew) Gull eggs.  Here are some more clues.

Arctic Terns (ARTE) and Short-billed Gulls (SBIG) are both in the "gull" family, with similarly shaped eggs with variable dark speckles.  

ARTE are small, delicate birds, so have smaller eggs (1.4-1.9 inches) 

SBIG are larger and much heavier, with larger eggs.

ARTE usually lay 1-3 eggs 

SBIG lay 1-5 eggs

ARTE usually lay on a scrape or hollow on the ground, especially if in a colony, but can also lay on or next to vegetation; but do not build a large twiggy nest 

SBIG nest almost anywhere, but are attracted to the fringes of an ARTE colony, and almost always build up a large twiggy nest

On our website, in the Arctic Tern monitoring page for 2019, you'll find photos taken of ARTE and SBIG (called Mew at the time) eggs taken at the ARTE colony site that summer.  There is also much information about ARTE in Skagway in our 2016 report on the ARTE colony.

Also, the All About Birds website is a reliable starting place for basic bird information:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Arctic_Tern/lifehistory

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Short-billed_Gull/lifehistory

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[Rosemarie Hughes]

Well, I was thinking that they may be gull as well - but chose the tern 😊 thanks for confirmation!

I did not see a bird fly away, missed it, but did see both flying along the river. Given there were 4 eggs, which terns normally don't lay that many, I was in doubt. 

I almost stepped on them.

Thanks!

Happy weekend!! 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skagway-bird-club/0cb93a7e3676476471326e4bbb8870f67adae443.camel%40aptalaska.net.

[Rosemarie Hughes]

Turns out they are spotted sandpioers....

[Rosemarie Hughes]

[Furbish - Klensch]

Hey Rose,

Great!  Please share with the group how you were able to make that identification so we can all learn from your experience.

- Elaine