#terns

[himbobutch]

piping plovers and their habitat Originally for the Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program's tshirt contest

[snototter]

A white winged tern (Chlidonias leucopterus) snatches up a fish in Marina Barrage, Singapore

by Andrew Hunt

[jadafitch]

Petit Manan Lighthouse, Petit Manan Island, Steuben. Possibly my favorite lighthouse. In the summer, this island is home to hundreds of birds. Including Atlantic puffins, arctic, common and roseate terns, as well as black guillemots and many more. Decided I couldn't draw them all, but here's a couple attempts to try and capture the island's vibes. Can you spot the oystercatchers? MERCH

[fragrantblossoms]

Walter Inglis Anderson (American/Mississippi, 1903-1965), Terns, no date. Linocut on wallpaper.

[simplified-birds]

Simplified bird #150 - common tern

( requested by @deadbirds-and-daydreams )

[great-and-small]

Some species of terns (including the Royal terns pictured here) exhibit a mysterious behavior called the “dread” and we don’t know exactly why they do it.

Tern colonies are almost always a cacophony of noise with the sounds of squawks and chatter from breeding adults and groups of juveniles. Even at night the noise is constant. Sometimes though, the entire colony will fall utterly quiet together in a sustained period of silence that we call the dread. Often the birds will leave their nests as a group while they fly together in perfect silence.

After the dread the birds quickly return to their normal chatter. We don’t yet know what this behavior means but it has been theorized to be a form of social bonding, a threat response, or even just plain fun.

If you’re interested in what the dread sounds like, have a listen from a researcher who observed tern populations firsthand.

[antiqueanimals]

Florida Wildlife; vol. 12, no. 5. October, 1958. Illustration by Wallace Hughes.

Internet Archive

[drethelin]