Hi Robin,
Your birds are (Great) Crested Terns. Little Terns are about half the size of Crested Terns and are an endangered species. Efforts are being made on the South Coast and elsewhere to try and protect Little Tern colonies that like to nest on sand spits and sandy beaches favoured by tourists at this time of year.
Cheers,
Mark
From: Robin Eckermann [
Sent: Thursday, 3 January 2013 4:16 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Some cooler sea-side images
In the hot weather we're having here in Canberra, some seaside images may be refreshing! I had a couple of days down at Bawley Point over New Year, and enjoyed observing a colony of what I believe to be Little Terns (please correct me if I've wrongly guessed the species). One facet of their behaviour that was quite intriguing was when birds returned to the colony with fish. They would typically sweep over the colony squawking loudly, then land in various spots and continue the squawking - perhaps trying to locate their young? When on the ground, both the bird with the fish and others nearby would adopt a very different pose with wings flared out. The sequence of pictures below illustrates the behaviour ...
(Click on any thumbnail for a larger view)
Regards ... Robin Eckermann
