11 July 2014 Stoney Creek, ON. A birder acquaintance told me about a small action of his that resulted in a feeding frenzy among Common and Caspian Terns; it happened this way. Not far from his home (& mine) at the shore of Lake Ontario, a small creek gathers in a large pond before finally trickling across the gravelly beach and into the lake. Sometimes the outlet runs steadily and at other times, like last week, it gets blocked by storm debris. It being choked, Barry scraped the channel open allowing a surge of pond water into the lake. It’s the sort of thing we’ve all done at sometime over the years.
The rush of relatively warm water into Lake Ontario’s bone-aching cold produced an abundance of small fish of some kind along the edge of the lake. Whether they had been swept out of the pond and were trying to stay close to the warmer outflow, or were drawn inshore for food I don’t know; I suspect the former.
The terns found this new food source and fed greedily for a couple of days. Things have slowed down now, but after the next rain (due in two days) it may happen again. In any event it’s easy photographic pickings to sit quietly by the outflow and watch the Common Terns and Caspian Terns patrolling the shore and every now and then plunging for a fish. It was an entertaining hour or so.
And inasmuch this is about my Bird of the Day, the grace and style of these birds should say it all. But in a few of shots, note the perfection of the wing structure. It’s long and slender and you can see how the pointed primary feathers flex elegantly to carry the wing-loading; and if the simplicity of the structure of a flight feather persuades you to glue feathers to your arms and jump off a cliff; think again, it’s already been done and not well.
Here are two galleries of photos. You won’t be able to see them if you’re reading this as an email, you’ll need to be on the website.
