I just got home from a nice trip to Nickerson Beach with clients, I saw a few old friends as well. We had lots of great opportunities with some very young Common Tern chicks. We witnessed everything from begging chicks to adults feeding their young—we even saw a few brutal beatings endured by the tiniest of chicks. On our way back to our cars we watched as a soaking wet tern chick made its way back from the water’s edge with mama guiding it to the colony —but only after a few fights. The little chick was aggressive and probably gave his mother more than one worry… she looked knackered. I will try to share some of those images shortly.
I spent most of the morning engaged solely on the tiniest of chicks. Some still with their egg tooth. The egg tooth is only visible when they are newly hatched. The chicks use this egg tooth to penetrate the eggshell from inside, allowing them to break free from the shell. After a short time, the egg tooth falls off or is absorbed into the bill. Note the egg tooth on each of these photos.
Most of the tern chicks we saw were still incredibly young. On my last visit I saw at least a dozen eggs that had been overcome by the tide. The eggs mixed in with seaweed were mostly cleared form the beach on this visit. Even with all the lost eggs, it seems to be a good-sized colony that is flourishing nicely.
Large crop but I wanted to show the egg tooth.