Common Terns face wet and windy 24 hours

Thursday, 10 June

It was a damp afternoon at the Oysterbeds today, and with an increasing northeasterly wind and the forecast of a period of heavy rain through the first few hours of daylight tomorrow morning things do not look quite so rosy for the Common Terns. There are now at least 24 broods of small chicks on the islands in the lagoon and the first signs of stress were appearing. The showery rain wasn't too much of a problem, as there were gaps in the wetness and the chicks are still all small enough to be brooded successfully by the females (i.e. they fit underneath them!). However, it was likely the wind strength was becoming troublesome, as a high proportion of the prey being bought in by the adult terns for the chicks were very small flat fish. Not TOO much of a problem, but it became obvious that some of the chicks weren't able to swallow them, and there weren't too many alternatives being bought in. Yesterday there were plenty of tiny silvery fish being bought back for the chicks which were ideal.

Mike, our evening volunteer, later reported to me that he had seen a tern chick predated by a opportunist visiting Herring Gull which snatched it from a pair of squabbling Black-headed Gulls after they had plucked it from South Island and dropped it into the lagoon waters. Okay, one down, quite a few to go.

Here's a couple of short video clips of the terns that I have taken during the last two days. They show the same pair of terns from two different angles with their three young: