View allAll Photos Tagged CASPIAN
One of my favorite birds to see and hear their raucous calls as they pass through our area each spring and fall. If I keep trying . . . I hope, one day to catch one in a dramatic dive for a fish.
Determined not to be outdone by the diving Ospreys, a pair of Caspian Terns claimed their own vertical patch of airspace on Horsepen Bayou.
The Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world. These two are breeding adults signified by their full black cap.
Photographed in the Aransas Bay, Texas Gulf.
As the tides roll out in come the Terns.
www.flickr.com/photos/kiphutchison/53863185074/in/datepos...
Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia, Sternidae previously Laridae) in flight
I have been seeing more and more Caspian terns year over year for the past few years.
Terrell's Island Preserve
Butte des Morts Conservation Club
Lake Butte des Morts
Winnebago County, Wisconsin
AP505756
Caspian Tern is the biggest species of tern on the planet. Despite their geographic name they are widely distributed around the globe, across North America, Eurasia, Africa down to Australia and New Zealand. But they are patchily distributed and not very common. The entire global population is 50,000 pairs, whereas there are more pairs of Arctic Terns nesting in Britain alone than that (53,000). And when I said they were large they are 5 or 6 times heavier than an Arctic Tern, about the size of a large gull. Despite the wide global distribution there is almost no geographic variation. This one was at San Ignacio lagoon on Mexico's Baja peninsula. They used to be placed in the same genus as Arctic Tern (Sterna) but were recently placed in a genus Hydroprogne (means water swallow) all by themselves.
Another tern taking off after a fishing dive without any fish. This time it's a Caspian tern on one of the Ludo salt lagoons.
Determined not to be outdone by the diving Ospreys, a Caspian Tern claimed its own vertical patch of airspace on Horsepen Bayou.
Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge
California
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the adult Caspian Tern's call as "a loud, gravelly, rolling rrrrraeu." Try to imitate that!
RSPB Frampton Marsh, from path by visitor centre. Mainly sat on the mud spit but after a couple of hours gave great flight views. Vagrant from eastern europe, characterized by massive size compared to our local terns.
I was so pleased to see a number of Caspian Terns at Blackie Spit. They had been feeding further out in the bay and some were returning to a distant sandbar.
I don't photograph shorebirds a lot but the Caspian Tern is one of my favorites. Whatcing them hunt is so entertaining.