Common Tern (f + chick)
Common Tern / sterna hirundo. Straws Bridge, Derbyshire. 26/06/21.
A tender behavioural image made last year. The female Common Tern is incubating her youngest chick, tucked up safely beneath her. Meanwhile her older chick is begging for food by grasping her beak. Worth a try, though there was nothing available until the male returned with a Stickleback.
To the right of this intimate scene lies a broken egg, showing an embryo still in the egg sac. This was one of her clutch of three eggs and how it got broken is open to speculation. I would have thought if corvid(s) were responsible, the embryo would have been eaten.
BEST VIEWED LARGE.
Common Tern (f + chick)
Common Tern / sterna hirundo. Straws Bridge, Derbyshire. 26/06/21.
A tender behavioural image made last year. The female Common Tern is incubating her youngest chick, tucked up safely beneath her. Meanwhile her older chick is begging for food by grasping her beak. Worth a try, though there was nothing available until the male returned with a Stickleback.
To the right of this intimate scene lies a broken egg, showing an embryo still in the egg sac. This was one of her clutch of three eggs and how it got broken is open to speculation. I would have thought if corvid(s) were responsible, the embryo would have been eaten.
BEST VIEWED LARGE.