This year, twice as many seabird chicks survived the summer and fledged from their nests along the coast of Maine compared to last year. This exciting success rate is much closer to what’s considered normal for Maine’s seabird colonies, following a steep decline last year as climate change dealt a blow to nesting birds like […]
Tag: Common Tern
This World Oceans Day, Explore the Secrets of Seabirds
At Audubon we spend a lot of time talking about Atlantic Puffins, and for good reason. Our staff have spent nearly 50 years helping these colorful seabirds return to their historic breeding grounds off the coast of Maine, and studying what puffins tell us about conditions in our oceans. But puffins aren’t the only seabirds […]
In Virginia, a Race to Ready New Nesting Sites for 20,000 Returning Seabirds
Every spring since the 1980s, tens of thousands of seabirds have made their way from their South American wintering grounds to Virginia’s South Island to nest. Once there, raucous masses of Gull-billed Terns, Royal Terns, Common Terns, Black Skimmers, Laughing Gulls, and others combine to create the state’s largest breeding colony. But this April, when […]
Slimbridge WWT, Hayling Island, Denny Wood and Pennington Marsh
With the last days before my next foreign trip, work and family life have been hectic. The glorious, warm sunny Easter weekend of 19th April was spent decorating at home with some time on the beach with friends and family and enjoying the garden. Birding of late has been confined to a few short jaunts […]
Wheatears and Wagtails at Landguard
A nice morning at Landguard NR in Suffolk where the place was alive with Wheatears, Willow Warblers and Wagtails with both Yellow and Pied in the dozens feeding and getting ready for the off. I found a couple of Lesser Whitethroat and Common Whitethroat before fly overs from both Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk. Common Tern […]
6th and 13th August – Pennington Marsh
A free Saturday morning on 6th August and I couldn’t resist the pull of Pennington Marsh but a few beers the night before meant a slightly later start so I wasn’t in the car park at Lower Pennington Lane until 08:00 by which time the dog walking hordes had descended. I wandered a short way […]
One good Tern
We had a good day out on Brownsea Island in Poole harbour, Dorset, where Terns were the main attraction, good numbers of Sandwich Terns and a few Common Terns nest on the islands here and great views can be had from the hides as they bring fish to the youngsters. deserves another… And a couple […]
North-west China (Xinjiang) – 6th May (Day 16)
Today was on a knife edge, and stress levels in the group were high, we had two endemic birds to see and only around three hours in which to see them – it could go well or horribly wrong. If the latter then the only bird I would have gained from the Luntain part of […]