View allAll Photos Tagged CASPIAN
This juvenile Caspian Tern was still being fed by its parents for the most part but did occasionally take a stab at fishing for himself.
This juvenile Caspian Tern was still being fed by its parents for the most part but did occasionally take a stab at fishing for himself.
I went back to Blackie Spit hoping for shorebirds and only saw the resident Long-billed Curlew, which is a great bird but I was hoping for others.
What I did spend about 90 minutes watching were Terns and Gulls. As the tide went out the Caspian Terns were diving into the water to snag fish. The Caspian Tern has a distinctive unpleasant call so they were easy to locate.
Peace Valley Park, Pa.
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Hydroprogne caspia being harassed by Heermann's Gull, Larus heermanni on a foggy day,
Montana de Oro State Park,
San Luis Obispo Co., California
Caspian Tern. The largest of the terns, the Caspian Tern is one of the most widespread tern species in the world, occurring on every continent except Antarctica. When they spot a fish, they hover and then plunge into the water after it, often submerging completely. Their broad wings allow them to soar, gull-like, flapping with strong, slow wing-beats. IMG_7797
Caspian Terns are very large terns in comparison to the tiny White Fronted Terns I have photographed previously.....
A group of Casipan Terns hangs out at Menominee Park on the migration north. Endangered species in the state of Wisconsin due to declining numbers and human interference.
Oshkosh, WI April 30, 2018.
SOURCE FILE 9735
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More Caspians are returning to the (off-limits to the public) nesting colony for the breeding season. You only see the ones that come to hunt Seaplane Lagoon.
(the former) Alameda Naval Air Station, Alameda, CA
Caspian tern | Hydroprogne caspia | Pulicat, Tamilnadu | 2022 | Sony Gear | f 5.6 @ 1/2500 | ISO 400
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The windy monsoon conditions over the new year brought a heap of sea-birds close to Darwins shoreline!!
When I started birdwatching I used to love gulls. I'd spend hours scanning through flocks looking for Glaucous, Iceland and Mediterranean Gulls, and dreaming of finding an American gull, or a real prize like Ross's Gull, or Ivory Gull. But I lost interest about 20 years ago when the highly variable Herring Gull was split into a number of species; American Herring Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Caspian Gull etc. I remember being surprised when I chatted to knowledgeable birders in America who announced "I don't do gulls". But having tried to "do" gulls in America I realise why. It's because their gulls have a habit of hybridising, and the hybrids hybridise. So no two gulls seem to look exactly the same. Well the same thing happens within the Herring Gull complex and they hybridise where populations meet at the edge of their breeding ranges.
I visited Pugneys Country Park near Wakefield yesterday, primarily to look at a distant Great Northern Diver, but I found this first winter Gull which diverted me. It stood upright, had a small whitish head with a very sloping forehead, a small dark eye and a narrow black bill, which all point to Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans). But it did not look quite right for a Caspian Gull, as it was perhaps a little too robust, and its back was too scaly. Most importantly one of its tertials (those feathers between the back and the wing tips) had the wrong pattern as it was barred. They should be all dark with a neat thumb nail pale tip like the lower tertials. Looking at the books when I got home did not make it any easier. So I sent a photo to my friend John McLoughlin @johnnymacbirder , who identified it immediately, but sought the opinion of other gull experts on Twitter. The concensus was that this was from one of the East German breeding colonies where Herring Gulls (L. argentatus) and Caspian Gulls (L.cachinnans) come into contact and interbreed. So it is a hybrid, and explains why I had so much difficulty trying to pigeonhole it.
Caspian gulls breeds around the Black and Caspian Seas, extending eastwards across Central Asia to north-west China. In Europe, it has been spreading north and west and now breeds in Poland and eastern Germany, where they come into contact with Herring Gulls. Some Caspian Gulls migrate south as far as the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, while others disperse into Western Europe. Small numbers are now seen regularly in Britain.