Tern Banding

We arrived on a small sandy island out in the sound at 6:30 am to band a new batch of Tern babies.

Any time you enter a rookery you are going to upset the moms

We had to be extra careful walking about as there were eggs everywhere.

There were so many small chicks still in their nests it was some times hard to find a safe path.

This small one was only a few hours old and the egg shell was still in the nest .

One mom was trying to protect this batch of little ones and was herding them into the bushes to protect them.

As we tried to herd the chicks across the beach to our make shift corral. It wasn't going well. they had there own thoughts on where they were going.

How could such little birds out smart 14 adults. It was easy. We would go left and they would go right and then turn around and just stop.

We finally broke them into smaller groups and had some success. We brought down the wire corral and banded them on the spot.

Just so cute. One of the three thousand little one we helped to band on a really sunny hot day out in the Pamilico Sound , about 10 miles in from the Oregon Inlet . It is just a beautiful location for the rookery as they are all posted " no entry " and they really are just for the birds.

Too hot

         We have been in the Outer Banks for over a week now and it's just to hot to do much of anything. We have done our first three shifts in the Pea Island VC and every one who comes in can not believe how hot it is. The fresh water pond behind the VC has almost disappeared . That's the first time in 30 years . All we are able to do right now is do our shifts and hide in the AC until this heat breaks.                                                                                                      G

Traveling

         Day three on the road and so far everything has been a good . Our one day and two nights in New Orleans was as good as it has always been but the French Quarter is not a pretty as it use to be. A little more trash and now there is graffiti on some of the historic houses and just about every where else a can of paint can come into play. So sad. As we walked some of the side streets there are signs that say to travel in large groups for safety, how things have changed in a few short years. Today as we were leaving the RV park the road to I 10 was closed due to a shooting under the bridge where the on ramp is, once again things seem to be changing for those who love to visit there. Tonight we are in a little RV park in Alabama  and we are the only ones here and it's a weird being all alone.       G