If you have been following this page for a while then you know I am quite fond of terns. They are incredible birds designed to fly and spend the majority of their lives in the air. And its a good thing too as Common terns have one of the longest migrations of any bird nearly circumnavigating the globe every year!
This summer I spent a lot of time on the lakes photographing birds and there were some common and arctic terns nesting on a nearby island. Once the young had fledged they spent a lot of time following their parents around begging for food as they learned to fish for themselves.
These common terns were resting on some small rocks near shore and I took some photos as I drifted past. I love the colouring of the juveniles whose feathers are more blue-grey than their parents’ breeding plumage. Interestingly, hatchlings come in two colours: grey or brown and chicks from the same nest aren’t always the same colour.
Parents are very protective of their nests and their young. However I have noticed that their aggression wanes a little bit once the young birds can fly. At this time the parents seem preoccupied with feeding their young in order to start the long trip back to the Chile and Argentina where many birds spend the winter months.
All of that exercise must be good for their health as terns appear to be quite long-lived: The oldest recorded Common Tern was at least 28 years, 11 months old, when it was recaptured and re-released during banding operations in Massachusetts in 2005; the same state where it was banded in 1976.*
I’ll have more tern images to share with you later this year so if you love these birds as much as I do be sure to
check in on Sundays!