Parasitic and Pomarine Jaegers are among the most difficult birds to photograph in Pennsylvania. Aside from hurricanes, during which they are often difficult to nicely photograph most times anyway, one's only real hope of finding either species with any regularity here is along the Lake Erie shore during migration. Unfortunately even there, while they are often seen close enough to shore for a nice scope view, they don't often come close enough for an SLR camera, and even less so in good photographic conditions.

 

So on November 25, I was pretty happy to make the images below, which are not award winners by any stretch of the imagination, but satisfying nonetheless. The white spots all over the bird are actually snowflakes, as snow was falling with moderate intensity as this bird passed. It was one of three for the day.

 

A single image often does not do justice to the Pomarine/Parasitic identification challenge, but watching it in life revealed the necessarity details on this bird and the other two. It appeared rather slender, with quicker wingbeats, and a smaller bill than would be expected for Pomarine. To me Parasitic feels more falcon-like than Pomarine, faster and sleeker overall, and this bird fit that model. Importantly, the extended central tail feathers appeared to be pointed rather than blunt-tipped, a key feature for Parasitic, and visible in the first photo below.