A Turn for Terns

June 19, 2022

As we near the solstice I find my enthusiasm for being outside ebbing. Our delightful cool weather gave way to mid-summer-still-too-hot-and-steamy-at-5-AM heat. Sunrise is uncomfortably early, there are a lot more humans out even in the early morning and just for good measure, my back decided this was a good time for me to try and learn some new movement patterns, once I help it relax back into a place where prone is not the preferred position.

This time of year I can imagine living in a nice cool cave, though in the time of climate change I guess you have to stipulate a cave where it never floods. I have created a nice, cozy spot in the back corner of my basement. Surrounded by 3 concrete walls, it’s quiet, cool and nurturing.

The good news is, I still have lots of photos from spring I have not yet posted. So this week I want to highlight one of my favorite migration birds - terns!

Terns are cousins of gulls, but they are more true “water birds” as they get their food by diving head-first into the water. Gulls will happily eat human leftovers on land or fish from the surface of the water. Terns will venture far out into the waters to find fish and dive from up high to emerge with a fish. Watching terns circle, dive and squawk is a joy. I marvel at how easily they go in and out of the water (but rarely get photos of it because they like to dive out in the middle of the lake). Their stay here is very brief, especially in the spring.

We had three varieties of tern visit this year. First up, the Forster’s terns. Forster’s terns travel in small flocks (I usually see 3-15 at a time) and I saw them several times way out in the lake. Finally one day they came close enough to take some photos of their amazing mid-air acrobatics! Forster’s terns are medium size terns, a little smaller than the smaller gulls. (Average weight = 5-7 oz, wingspan 30-31”)

Next up, the black terns. Black terns are nearly the smallest of the terns that pass through here but still about twice as big as the swallows. ((Average weight = 2 oz, wingspan 22-24”) I say nearly, because there is a (slightly) smaller tern called a least tern, but in a decade of watching birds here I have only seen them once.

The black terns came through on a cloudy day when most of the lake was inaccessible due to a triathlon, but I still got to watch them diving and circling through binoculars. It was a very large flock, I estimated at least 55 birds! It’s extra special to see them in the spring, because they turn gray and white in the fall and lose those beautiful black feathers.

Last and definitely the largest are the Caspian terns - “All About Birds” says they are the largest terns in the world. (Average weight = 19-28 oz, wingspan 49-50”) I usually have lots of sightings but this year I only saw them once, on that same cloudy day as the black terns. Caspian terns are easy to spot with their big carrot beaks, plus they almost always announce themselves with a very loud rolling squawk.

Caspian terns have a special place in my heart. One fall I helped rescue a young Caspian tern that had been separated from its flock and after the wonderful wildlife rehab nursed it back to health, I helped release it on a day when another flock was traveling through. Another year I enlisted the help of the marina managers and fishermen to feed a youngster who was on his own. Caspian terns seem to me to be very joyful birds and I love when I get a glimpse, even just a flyby.

Ah, just remembering spring migration puts me in a cooler state of mind. Mid-summer is one of the cycles and it’s good to know it too shall pass. Meanwhile, we will enjoy the delights the heat can bring, like fresh tomatoes! As The Byrds song said, “to everything, tern, tern, tern, there is a season, tern, tern, tern…” (Lol - that is what it said, right? I mean, their band was even birds!)

I hope you are finding some joyful moments in your summer (or winter for my Southern Hemisphere friends).