Tuesday, September 28, 2010

One good tern deserves another

This summer Bellingham was inundated with Caspian Terns, the largest species of tern (link takes you to the Wikipedia site about them). Since I have become a birder myself, I joined the Whatcom County birders listserv a while back and regularly receive emails of sightings people have of various birds. The Caspian Terns that came to Bellingham this year are far in excess of the 2009 numbers, partly because of the collapse of their breeding grounds at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge near Sequim. Bald eagles and coyotes had been decimating the colony there, so the terns abandoned the site.

Joe Meche is President of the North Cascades Audubon Society and is a frequent correspondent to the listserv. The pictures I've got here are taken by him and shared through email. He put that first picture on to show that many of the birds have as many as three bands on them. He and 20 local volunteers captured, banded and released 252 Caspian Tern chicks on July 30. I have taken much of the information in this post from his newsletter article on Whatcom Watch Online: (To Everything Tern, Tern, Tern: Bellingham's Caspian Tern Summer). If you enlarge that picture, you can see the Bellingham bands (I think they are the cool orange ones). From that article linked above:
Some of the bands we read as we scanned the colony told us that birds were here from Dungeness and some from as far away as East Sand Island on the Columbia River, the Tri-cities area, southern Oregon, and the San Francisco Bay area. A real highlight for Ladd came when she spotted a bird that she had helped to band as a chick in early spring near Pasco! No one really knows how the word was spread among the birds about Bellingham, but they kept coming! One bird that was in the colony was banded on East Sand Island in 2001!
It is fascinating to speculate on how the birds let each other know where the happening place is to be found each summer. Before the summer was over, the colony here in Bellingham had become the second largest on the Pacific Coast. And this particular area they chose is scheduled for development by the City of Bellingham. Here's another Joe Meche picture:
These birds are ground nesters, and it's amazing to me that they are able to find their own chicks again after flying out to the bay for fish. Caspian Terns fly over the water and dive-bomb right into the water. The fish don't have a chance. I enjoyed learning all about these birds during the summer, and I just this week received a picture of a Caspian Tern giving a farewell salute (also taken by Joe).
This magnificent bird looks to me like he's saying goodbye as he migrates to South America or wherever it is they finally end up for the winter months. I love the aerodynamic look of him as he tucks his legs into his body and allows those mighty wings to do their thing. The birders are calling this the Bellingham Summer of the Caspian Terns, since at least 700-1,000 new chicks flew off to parts unknown, born and bred right here in my own home town. More than 250 banded youngsters will tell us how many of them will return here next summer.
:-)

16 comments:

  1. very cool pictures...a neat little aspect of your town as well...interesting about the bands and to see what they have to say next year...

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  2. Beautiful pictures, DJan-- and thank you for leaving the info on my site! Once I heard it was a Caspian Tern I immediately connected it with the banding process I'd heard was going on. They are striking birds.

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  3. Awesome birds! Jackson Bottom Wetlands, where I volunteer, had 10 pelicans show up this summer. They stayed about two weeks preening themselves while we watched faithfully by video camera. Pelicans don't come to this area, but 10 did. Aren't birds wonderful?

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  4. This tiny blue planet is full of wonders, especially its critters. When they built our gold golf course here they destroyed a large wooded area, the home of a fair number of foxes. Norma Jean and I used to love to watch them emerge from the woods and play. But fear (what a powerful emotion) of some of the old F–––'s here drove the powers that be to trap and remove them. Amazing how humans always have first dibs on things.

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  5. What fascinating birds!!! And how wonderful that Bellingham has become such a refuge for them!!! Love that! I always learn so much from your posts, and this was no exception! Terrific!!! ~Janine XO

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  6. I love to see the wild life in other regions. Though I never do tire of our Great Blue Herons.

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  7. Wow! How interesting. The immigrant terns made for an exciting summer. BTW, great title pun. lol

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  8. How interesting that one from this area (Pasco and the Tri-cities are not that far from here) made it over to Bellingham. It will be exciting to see how many of the banded ones return next spring.

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  9. From what I have read about your location, it sounds like a wonderful place for birds to live. Here in the British Isles, we have 6,500 small islands around our coast and enjoy the sound of birds through the country, north and south. Without them the world would be a far sadder place, I'm sure you will agree. My favourites are the puffins.
    Blessings, Star

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  10. Djan, this is wonderful...! I have never seen these birds before, and I live just a few miles north of you.

    Maybe it's our tern to see some of these in Vancouver. :-)

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  11. I love the last shot most of all
    I was never much of a bird lover before I started blogging
    since then, thanks to folks like you and Rambling Woods I have learned so much and am fascinated by them :)

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  12. I'm not really familiar with bird names that's why I wanted to go bird watching maybe this coming summer hopefully. Thank you for the information about these birds and aside from that you have captured them well!

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  13. Bellingham is a nice place. I enjoy reading about the cool stuff there and also your take on what is going on in your town.

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  14. My wife Nancy is an Audubon member and crazy about birding. She has even seen the illusive "Spotted Owl" and gotten a photo.

    My interest in birds, conversely, revolves mainly around turkey and chicken, usually around dinner time.

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  15. How exciting to have such beautiful birds so close to home. That was an enjoyable post DJan.

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