Finally, a productive summer of least terns. Mike spotted them on morning walks when Chris was in Georgia helping Lynn move.
The males bring fish back to the females who wait on the beach.
The courtship ritual involves the transfer of fish.
A few weeks later, Chris spotted a tern cleaning a shell from the rest.
Then, the daily walks featured hanging out by the preserve in hopes of spotting a baby tern. Mike dragged out the tripod for videos.
We named the baby Lint at first, since it looks like dryer lint. We also started calling it Junior. Eventually, Junior Lint was added as another name.
The biologists built a plastic fence around part of the preserve to keep the babies inside. They banded on a renamed Junior Lint to be Marvin.
We spotted another nest and followed it for a while (until the mean biologists moved the chicks inside the plastic fence).
A week or two later, we spotted fledglings on the beach and flying.
