A Week with the Terns

I'll start with the highlights and end with all the rest of the photos.

To give you a sense of the island:

They aren't kidding about don't land. Between Common Terns and Roseate Terns there are over 10,000 nests, which means 30-40 thousand birds, half of whom are tiny and under foot. You have to be so careful walking around.

That's a little blind on the left. There are maybe 10 of them scattered around the island. Then the big blind on the right which was the only one tall enough to fully stand in.

Sunset on the 4th of July.

If you do a google map search for Great Gull Island you can see it, but not at this time of year because most of the island is covered with vegetation like this and the map looks mostly dirt and open. 

Morning chick check. The commons like to hide under the brush.

Location Scouting Hatches Harbor

Jeff let me tag along with him yesterday when he did his field work. The man works 12-14 hour days during the field season, so it was very generous of him to add in a little extra time for me. We went to Race Point North and saw absolutely no terns at all, though sometimes that location is hopping. And then we went to Hatches Harbor where there were several hundred terns scattered around.

I had my Nikon with me so I got some photos and video, but it was neither the right camera, nor the right lens, nor the right time of day by the time we found the birds, so these images are just to give you an idea. It was good to go to get a sense of how much walking (with gear) will be involved, where and when it's likely to see the birds, and how much of a challenge it will be for me and the audience to distinguish the roseates from the other terns and even just other shore birds.

Take a look.

Learning about the roseate tern

I'm starting a new project. It will be a short documentary about the roseate tern. Unlike the common tern, which is apparently still very common, the roseate is endangered. I have a lot to learn yet, so anything I say now may be inaccurate, but here's my understanding and my thoughts at the moment.