One of the great things about my time spent on GGI was having a window onto the world of the terns...watching them do their thing. The first series below illustrates a favorite pastime of mine: watching the "elephants" act like spoiled, greedy, obese teenagers. Their appetites seem insatiable, as they don't ever stop squawking in their parents' faces, pulling their tail feathers, and constantly pestering them for more food. This comical pair lived right outside the door of the building I slept in.
Below was definitely a "right place - right time" moment. I managed to capture this scolding tern protecting her newly-hatched chick (underneath her) and another young chick behind her.
I managed to be lucky enough to catch a few common tern chicks hatching on my rounds. I paused to catch this one on camera. Unfortunately, it became obvious to me that it was going to take a long time before he was going to be fully hatched, so I could only catch a minute of it before having to move on (and also wanted to keep my disturbance to a minimum). You can see his "egg tooth": the white calcareous point on the end of the bill that helps the chick break the shell.
No comments:
Post a Comment