One good tern deserves another
Mar 29th, 2007 by Sandra
The terns are back!
Our coastal area is summer home to two types of terns: the Least Tern and the King Tern. These wonderful fishing birds are the most patient birds on the planet. They hover about twenty feet above the water looking for fry in the waters below, then dart, submerge completely, and explode up out of the water. Nine times out of ten, they come up without a fish.
They spend the winter in central America and the northern coast of South America. On some predetermined day in the fall, they all pick up and disappear. Just as suddenly this week, they reappeared. Their high-pitched bark of a call is music amid all the laughing gulls, which sound crass by comparison….
I enjoy watching the terns because they are so patient. They don’t seem to get annoyed or frustrated by the fact that so many of their dives are misses. They just shrug the water from their shoulders and try again. I know there’s a lesson in there for me, but I’m resisting it….