November 25, 2013: A Gorgeous Little Guy

365 Project, Day 122

Here is my day 122 submission to my 365Project:

Just before my lunch break today I had a little visitor to the heli-deck...a little Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) came flying straight over to us and settle down for a rest. This is the second time since I joined the ship a couple of weeks ago that a tern has joined me on the heli-deck (see my blogpost from November 14). Once again, I was absolutely thrilled to have an opportunity to observe and photograph such a gorgeous little bird. 

Of course, I took a lot of photos...you never know when you're going to get that one shot that has that special something. I chose this photo as my photo of the day because I loved that the little guy was struggling to keep balance as the ship rolled in the swell and you can see here that he nearly ended up doing a face plant. So sweet!

Fun fact of the day:

The Arctic tern, like other seabirds, are generally long-lived with the oldest known individual living 34 years. 

Read more about the Arctic tern and research tracking their long migration (the longest recorded of any animal!) at The Arctic Tern Migration Project webpage.

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

I slowly crept on my belly, with my camera and 140-400 mm lens, across the heli-deck to get these photos. I wanted to be at the same level of the little guy..and really enjoyed the results.  

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

November 23, 2013: Arctic Tern In Flight

365 Project, Day 120

Here is my day 120 submission to my 365Project:

We've been seeing quite a few terns fly past us out here but usually they are too far to get a positive identification. We have mostly been seeing (or positively identifying!) Common terns (Sterna hirundo) but, according to my bird ID guide (Birds of Africa South of the Sahara - a great ID guide covering most of Africa!) we should also be seeing Arctic terns here. So, many of the terns we've been seeing flying past us have only been recorded as unidentified terns since it has been too difficult to see ID features and confirm which species we are seeing.

Fortunately, I finally got decent enough photos of this tern that I was able to identify it as an Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) 

Fun fact of the day:
Many Arctic terns will migrate from the Arctic summer breeding grounds to the Antarctic for a 'second summer'. This migration is the farthest annual journey of any bird with birds traveling 40, 000 km (25, 000 mi)! 

Read more about Arctic terns at Animal Diversity Web and Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds webpage.