Royal and sandwich terns hanging out together.
Sandwich terns taking a bath.
Black tern
Black tern turning from breeding (all black color) to non-breeding color.
Another black tern that was in full non-breeding color.
Short video of terns taking a bath.
I had read on Pinellasbirds.com that there were a few black terns on the Gandy bridge beach. It's fairly rare to see them in the Tampa bay area. They only come through here for a short time in the summer. Since I work close to the bridge, I stopped over there on my way home from work on one of the nights were it wasn't pouring down rain. There were large amounts of terns on the beach (when a dog wasn't chase them off the beach). I could only find a few black terns mixed in with other terns but I didn't see any that were in full black breeding color. Most of them were just changing feathers. I'm going to keep looking for that all black tern though.
I attached a short video of some terns bathing. I always like watching them swimming around in the water.
their sharp wingfeathers could poke an eye out! especially when they're all excited and bathing! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the photos ... and love terns! We have a second home on Anna Maria and spend lots of evening time on the deserted beach on the north end just watching these guys! So much fun!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog ... new follower!
Great sighting! Your photos are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI went to a tern's rock and saw the nestlings
ReplyDeleteGreat Birds to get in one frame...Enjoyed the vid very much too!!
ReplyDeletecool! It is so fun seeing birds take a bath. Those terns looks great. I havn´t seen them like this before. :)
ReplyDelete