10 Oct 2013

A passage of Whiskered Terns


At the end of last month Typhoon Wutip crossed Vietnam's coastline near Danang and some wet and windy weather blew north, bringing seabirds to Hong Kong's coastline.  A highlight being three Long-tailed Skuas seen over Mai Po Nature Reserve.


Sightings of "Marsh" Terns on autumn passage are not nearly as unusual as sightings of skuas, I'll admit.

A flock of Whiskered Terns over fishponds near Mai Po provided a good opportunity to study juveniles together with the adults moulting out of breeding plumage.  

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)


Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

Whiskered Tern - Chlidonias hybrida (hybrida)

No prizes for telling adults-from-juveniles.

A different call brought my attention to an "odd man out"; - Little Tern

This species breeds along the coast of south China, including Guangdong Province, and appears on passage here in Hong Kong too.

Little Tern - Sternula albifrons
And they all flew nice and  low, so I could get green/neutral backgrounds for the photos. 

Isn't nature fabulous ?



Finally, a semi-serious "Technical" note:  

Since July 2013 I've enabled "Google +" comments for this blog.  However, it became clear to me that this was EXCLUDING potential commenters who weren't on G +.

So I've disabled the Google + comments, and - something beyond my control - all those comments have been wiped off the blog records. My thanks, again to commenters, especially since July and apologies for the unintended deletions.

I felt that "Google +" comments were the electronic equivalent of shouting in a small room.

Although it's entirely possible I haven't grasped the potential of "G +" for "networking", I'd rather keep life simple.

5 comments:

  1. Very nice tern pics John........

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  2. Very nice BIF shots as usual, John. I like the pattern on the upperparts of these juvenile terns.

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  3. Wonderful photos as usual - wanted to add how much I have enjoyed your blog lately especially looking at the incredible pics you took from the hide - hope you do more of this kind of photography, really great stuff! Actually glad that you disabled Google + as I was having trouble adding comments to your blog.

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    Replies
    1. Jeremy, Thanks...

      Yes G + was driving me nuts. I'm a technophobe from the "computers-must-be-programmed-with-paper-tape" era !

      Vinyl records, beer in Party Seven cans, 25% annual inflation rate...ah, the good old days (!!)

      Delete