The Lone Tern

Featured Story: The Lone Tern

All the others had left, but he wasn’t ready. For two days, this young elegant tern fished and roosted alone. For two days, this bird called without receiving an answer. Lonely? Perhaps. Determined? Certainly. 

The quick dive that led to an audible splash looked correct. As the bird rose, water spilled from the head, revealing a bill clutching a struggling fish. The second catch in the last hour. Another box checked. Had the time come? The fall migration started last week. If this individual could feed itself consistently, it might be ready to journey south and finally join the others.

Field Notes

I’m uncertain why there was only one elegant tern left on the beach I’ve been monitoring. It strikes me as odd that a bird living in, and depending upon, a colony would remain alone.

It is possible that this bird hadn’t grown enough or stored enough fat/energy to join the migration with the others. That could result from being a late hatchling or from simply not getting enough nourishment from the parents over the last six months.

Another possibility is that there are other terns around that I couldn’t see. They may have fished further offshore and returned to a different beach.

In the story above, I assumed the bird was still learning to fish and couldn’t embark on a long-distance flight without mastering this skill. I felt that was a plausible assumption based on notes from researchers whose observations confirmed parents don’t feed juveniles after the fall migration. Given that I had witnessed this bird fish successfully, I used this knowledge to put a hopeful spin on the story.

Updates

I focused most of my attention this month on the elegant tern colony. What I thought might be a bit of scouting turned into a 5-week project. The birds are fascinating and have left me with several questions for researchers, some of which will become future blog posts.

In Case You Missed It

This month’s featured post: The Fifth Pass. An elegant tern parent searches for its offspring in a crowded colony full of con artists.

Until next time.