Amendment below:
"Little Terns (LITE): all 931 were in non-breeding plumage, suggesting on
current knowledge that they are from the northern population. One had a
metal ring. It is starting to look as though the LITE use the Caloundra
sandbanks on northward (autumn) migration, but not so much (?) on the
southward journey. This is consistent with migration behaviour in some other
species, in that the urge to breed seems to cause the birds to take a fast
trip to the breeding colonies. (Just thinking aloud, and once again time
will tell.)"
Sorry all, On rereading the above paragraph, I realised I had not specified that I was referring to the east Australian breeding population. Obviously the northern population uses the sandbanks in spring.
Cheers
Jill
|
