Rising Tide Images
Westbound
On a morning breakfast run, a pair of backlit white terns head out to sea. Manu-o-Kū are not as gregarious as other terns, however, I observed a ternery of fourteen birds on this morning squawking and flying around a narra tree, perhaps mobbing a predator that was unseen by me. The manu-o-Kū, or white tern, is an arboreal nesting seabird that thrives in urban Honolulu. Adults fish up to 120 miles offshore and return with fresh provisions rather than devouring then regurgitating a meal for their chick. This avian behavior was known to Polynesian voyagers and other seafarers. A landfall that may be out of view over the horizon could be located by following these birds conveying their catch back to their nestling.
During his voyage on the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin observed white terns at Cocos Island inspiring the naturalist to journal, “It is a small snow-white tern, which smoothly hovers at the distance of a few feet above one’s head, its large black eye scanning, with quiet curiosity, your expression. Little imagination is required to fancy that so light and delicate a body must be tenanted by some wandering fairy spirit.”
Westbound
On a morning breakfast run, a pair of backlit white terns head out to sea. Manu-o-Kū are not as gregarious as other terns, however, I observed a ternery of fourteen birds on this morning squawking and flying around a narra tree, perhaps mobbing a predator that was unseen by me. The manu-o-Kū, or white tern, is an arboreal nesting seabird that thrives in urban Honolulu. Adults fish up to 120 miles offshore and return with fresh provisions rather than devouring then regurgitating a meal for their chick. This avian behavior was known to Polynesian voyagers and other seafarers. A landfall that may be out of view over the horizon could be located by following these birds conveying their catch back to their nestling.
During his voyage on the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin observed white terns at Cocos Island inspiring the naturalist to journal, “It is a small snow-white tern, which smoothly hovers at the distance of a few feet above one’s head, its large black eye scanning, with quiet curiosity, your expression. Little imagination is required to fancy that so light and delicate a body must be tenanted by some wandering fairy spirit.”