24 Sep. 2006

It's been a couple days since my last blog and so today will represent the 24th of September back in 2006.  I'm not sure what I did this day 4 years ago but I took a lot of pictures!

We can start by some more photos of noddies.  Here are some BLACK NODDIES, an abundant seabird that nests on Tern Island:

They seem to be saying that they're hungry... all perched on our picnic table like that:

I already posted a picture or two of BROWN NODDIES but here are a couple more, these a bit closer.  Notice the difference between these and the above Black Noddies?

Sticking with the tern theme for now, here are more WHITE TERNS, these 2 perched on a rope edge of the roof of our house:

I'm not sure how this WHITE TERN chick could have behaved more hilariously.  Dance it up, buddy:

I may have eluded to some shorebirds in previous posts... here is proof that we have plenty of shorebirds on Tern Island.  Unfortunately, many of the young birds that arrive here in the fall cannot find enough food in this bleak and barren island.  There is no fresh water or mudflats here.  It's not an uncommon sight to see shorebirds unable to walk, slowly starving to death.  Here is a RUDDY TURNSTONE probably on it's last day alive:

With that said though, there ARE shorebirds that survive splendidly here on Tern Island.  These include the PACIFIC GOLDEN-PLOVERS.  Here is one I caught mid-blink (no, they don't always look so dopey):

This rather reptilian-looking ground-dweller (for the time being) is a young, but not yet stunning, RED-TAILED TROPICBIRD.  No, you don't want to offer your finger to this guy:

Although this is the only tropicbird species that nests on Tern Island, we did see White-tailed Tropicbird on a couple of occasions as well which was a real treat.  However, here is the same young RTTR:

One of my favorite residents here on Tern are the WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATERS.  Flocks of these will often roost on the runway just outside our house door.  The odd moaning/wailing sound that these make at night during the breeding season is really cool (until it wakes you up in the middle of the night!).  Here are a couple shots:

Hey, in the afternoon sun, even this RED-FOOTED BOOBY wanted to nap:

Here is one of many sunset photos from Tern Island: