Best feet forward?

Caspian Tern, originally uploaded by What the heck was that?.

The obvious amazing element of this photo is the bill has just cut the water without a ripple yet to break. The gape is open ready to grasp some hapless fish or perhaps it will be all splash and no lunch. Less conspicuous is the posture of the feet. As well as I know Caspian Terns I realize I don't know why the feet are forward in lieu of back. It would seem more stream lined to have them far back like the Pelicaniformes in their underwater pursuit for fish. Perhaps the feet forward are in position to allow for a quick burst off of the water. Caspians are not ones to sit and float on the water like a gull or even some of the smaller terns.

The last thing the fish saw was a big red bill

Caspian Tern Point Wilson, originally uploaded by rlw5663.

This photo has consistently ranked as one of the most interesting on Flickr and was the image I had in my mind when I read the wonderful species profile about Caspian Terns in the Sept/Oct BirdWatcher's Digest. Jim McCormac wrote a great article with some wonderful metaphors and comparisons that I found to be original and compelling. He was very gracious in mentioning this blog and the work I do with undergraduates at Willamette University. Birds have a special attraction that brings people together in a novel way. It was a world class turn of events to get to share some insights with the Bird Watcher's Digest readership. Any and all are encouraged to correspond with me directly about this great bird.

Dinner time in the Great Lakes

Dinner time, originally uploaded by 1booker.

This photo shows a Caspian Tern colony in what is in many ways the most important week of the annual cycle and this year is a good one at Lake Ontario's Hamilton Harbour. The inference of great year is the large number of nearly fledged or recently fledged chicks. The chicks are every bird in the photo with speckling or chevrons marking the back of the wings (or mantle). Also you can see these same younger birds have orange bills instead of the intense red of the adults.

The fish coming to its final fate is around 14-15 cm and appears to be a clupeid of some kind.

Caspian Tern Flexible Billing

Caspian Tern, originally uploaded by Ted Ardley.

This photos shows the small amount of flexibility that is characteristic of many birds, especially the Charadriformes. The flexibility is due to a thinness at the base of the maxilla suture and probably adds to the capacity to hold and manipulate prey. This flexibility is also in part due to the quadrate bone at the base of the jaw. These characters together are among those that separate birds from their raptor-like relatives in the Dinosauria.

Frozen

Frozen, originally uploaded by Mauricio Mejía.

Having watch Caspian Terns for more than a decade I have imagined taking this exact same photo a thousand times, but I never had my 'tern." You can see the tern's face reflected!
Wonder if the fish was captured in this 10 point dive.

Caspian Tern @ Eagle River near Juneau, Alaska

Caspian Tern , originally uploaded by slvreagle5.

This is fine photo of a Caspian Tern, but it is blog-worthy because of where and when the photography captured this shot. In late May Caspian Terns that are going to initiate breeding in western North America are still wandering around in small numbers, but most are on eggs by now and the first chicks are not far away. This Caspian Tern is 378 miles south from the Copper River delta which has breeders and is then 860 miles north of the colony at Dungeness Spit, Washington. If it was carrying fish in mid June, this would be HIGHLY suspicious breeding activity.

Food and Sex

Caspian Terns, originally uploaded by novembergale.

This photo is a wonderful profile of the behaviors immediately preceding copulation in Caspian Terns. The male is balancing on top of the female's back with a small cyprinid (6-7 cm) long in his bill. The female is not quite in the lordotic curvature (fully swayed back with raised tail) that will allow the male to turn his tern tail under hers in order to make the 'cloacal kiss' necessary to transfer gametes. It almost certain the female is making a highly pitched call reminiscent of a chick begging for food. Often copulation follows soon after (<10 secs) the female takes the fish, but I have seen females take the fish and then dump the male and males that eaten the fish after a cop.