Yesterday (Friday 9-10) my son and I witnessed a very interesting aspect of
Caspian tern parental behavior.??From Sunset Ave. ?we saw?a trio of Caspian
terns?flying north towards the Shell Creek spit.? One had a fish in its bill. ?
As usual, they announced their presence before we saw them, which enabled me to
set up for some?photos of them passing by.?


After lunch, I decided to check out the spit?before it was inundated by the
incoming high tide.???The spit was covered with what may have been as many as
1,000 gulls of various species, but I had heard prior reports of terns?landing
there as well.??I initially did not see?any terns among the gulls, but one tern
flew in from the south and landed among its?brethren.? I thanked it for?leading
me to the clan, for now 6-8 terns (both adults and juvies) stood out from the
gulls.

?An adult tern flew in?from the south with a fish and circled the spit 3-4 times
looking for its young one.???I was amazed that the adult could locate its own
young?one among the sea of gulls, adult terns, and other juvie terns?who?assumed
the?begging positon (mouth open) as the adult flew past.????Getting the fish is
one thing, retaining it is another.???After the adult gave the fish to its young
one,?both birds?were approached by some other hungry terns and the juvie dropped
the fish into the water.???The adult? quickly retreived the fish, took off woth
it in its bill, and made a few more circles over the spit before locating its
own young one and returning the fish to it.?? I think the juvie hung on to it
this time although it was hard to tell.

At first I was amazed that the adult tern could locate its own juvie among all
the other birds.? The more?I thought about it,? I?realized that if an adult
could locate its own baby among the thousands of?look alike terns at
the?Bellingham colony, it should come as no surprise that it would have no
trouble finding it?among a relative?handful of terns concentrated among a large
gathering of several different species of gulls.

It was a very interesting experience and I took?several hundred photos recording
the sequences I described above.? I noticed that?all of the terns stayed within
close proximity of each other.??? Around 3-4pm?the terns began flying south
(along with many of the gulls) as the tide rose to cover the spit.
Bill Anderson; Edmonds, WA. ?