Back in September, 2009, Harv and I took a trip to Newport for his niece's wedding and of course, some birding.
These Caspian Terns were spotted in the estuary near Hatfield Marine Center. The images are highly cropped as I stayed far away (behind the 600 mm with the 1.4 extender) so as not to disturb the family. There were two adults and a constantly begging juvenile. He must have been really hungry and not about to let anybody forget it. Both adults took turns swooping over the water, fishing for dinner, while the other adult stayed with the perpetually peeping pesterer. After a long flight, dinner must still be caught and presented to the chick.
More news on this subject (1/20/20)
Excerpt on the tern's trip from the NY Times :
In The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report on the journeys of 11 terns fitted with transmitting devices. The birds, which began their trips in Greenland or Iceland in August, took two routes south, some hugging the African coast and others crossing from West Africa to Brazil to follow the South American coast. They stopped for about three weeks in the mid-Atlantic east of Newfoundland, a rich feeding zone.
Once they reached the Southern Ocean, they spent four months flying primarily east and west, again in areas that are rich in food. They returned in May and June having traveled, on average, about 44,000 miles. One tern totaled 50,700 miles, which is the longest animal migration ever recorded electronically.
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