Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Inskip Point This Afternoon

I was out at Inskip Point this afternoon around low tide - approx. 2p.m. There were huge numbers of Terns roosting out on the sand bank. I saw 3 major parts to the roosting flock. I only got one wide view photo of one of these - the first photo. The second photo shows a closer view of a second part of the flock, and the last photo was taken when part of the flock flew then landed again close by. I estimated that several thousand birds were there. The major part of any flock of terns can only be counted late in the afternoon and into the early evening when most birds fly in from where they have been feeding out at sea - so there would be many more coming in tonight. There were Crested Terns, Common Terns, Little Terns, and White-winged Black Terns in the flock. Some of these Terns will possibly stay here for the summer but most will migrate further south.
All photos can be clicked on to enlarge.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks Andrew, It was a beaut afternoon!

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  2. Wow look at them all. They hardly have room to 'tern'.

    The most terns I've seen was not far from you at Teewah Beach. That was almost 30 years ago. Couldn't tell you how many there were - I can just remember several large flocks along beach while driving up to see the Cherry Venture.

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  3. Good one Mosura :-) Yes, there are a number of places along the coast where you can see large flocks of terns during the season.

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  4. Love to see skies full of birds. Even starlings!

    An odd blog link: seems Mosura was looking at Cherry Venture almost same time I was doing same, on Kiwi journo junket to Sunshine Coast.

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  5. Hi Tony - if its not too trite I'll say "small world"! Thirty years ago I was junketing around Canada and not even thinking about lovely warm beaches!

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