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Least Tern Love



Had an opportunity to visit Myrtle Beach, SC, these past few days and found
the area in which we stayed/beached rife with Least Terns.  Two major
observations:

1. Our hotel was in a very unnatural, heavily developed, heavily trafficked
area near the intersection of Hwy 17 bypass and Hwy 501 - about a mile (as
the tern flies) from the shoreline.  On early morning walks (before the mate
arose), I noticed Least Terns (LETEs) flying about - some with fish in their
bills being accosted by fishless others - near the Sun News complex of
buildings. They were very vocal. (LETE's call is a high-pitched, fluty
"fee-deep" sometimes repeated.)  This apparition of LETEs puzzled me until I
realized that these were flat-topped buildings (most others nearby had
peaked roofs), and that they must have looked to a birdseye view like
predator-free rectangular beaches - perfect for undisturbed nesting.  Tres
formidable!

2. Later in the day (around 0900), we noticed four LETEs perched nearby on
the beach where we had set up our chairs - two birds close-together, and two
outliers.  Of the pair close to one-another, one had a fish in its bill and
kept waving his fish side to side for the benefit of the other to see.  "A
courtship offering?" we thought. Yep.  The second bird - obviously the
female - began to hunker down (after about 5 minutes of fish waving by the
male) into a pre-coital position, presenting her tail to the male, while the
male stretched upward to the height of his little legs, and raised his
wings. They strutted about thus for a bit... At one point, a third bird
approached, and the female ran at it and chased it away. (Prolly a wistful
female.)  A beach-walking man waving his arms windmill-style - apparently
performing some weird exercise routine or fending off alien rays - strolled
within 3m of the courting pair, and we cursed him silently for what we
thought would be an interrupting termination to our show.  No soap.  The
Terns were intent on procreation. I said to my mate, "Watch carefully now.
Whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen quickly."  It did.  They did. They
flew off.  We were pleasantly stunned.  Ten minutes of courtship ritual as a
prelude to three seconds of avian copulation. All within about 5-6m of us
with the birds oblivious to our presence.  FASCINATING!  Thus is the species
propagated.   Tres, tres formidable!!

Of course, there were hundreds of non-copulating LETEs about; kiting,
diving, fishing, sounding off, flying back inland with their catches...

A wonderful experience to be had just by being in the right place at the
right time.

Cheers! 7;^)
Tomm "watsizname" Lorenzin
Mooresville (Lake Norman), NC
skytomm(at)1000plus.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's a poor sort of memory
that only works backwards.  ~Lewis Carroll

  ...and spottily, at best. ~Tomm Lorenzin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit me at: http://www.1000plus.com/