Two Terns
Out of the fog the terns come calling. I hear their chatter over the waves before I see them, and then, there they are, rapid wing beats passing overhead. More emerge from the mist. They hover over the water and then fall from the sky, striking small fish below the surface. As luck would have it, I’m at Gooseberry Neck this morning, a small spit of an island in southern Massachusetts that attracts seabirds, shorebirds, and songbirds to its open water, rocky beaches, and shrubby interior. I’m grateful to be in the… Read More
International Guillemot Appreciation Day
IGAD! It’s a big day for guillemots. If these small seabirds only knew that there are people around the world championing them today! Would they puff out their chests with pride, flash their white wing patches, or wave their bright red feet in the air? Or, perhaps, unassuming as they are, they would go about their usual seabird business, diving for fish, cruising the waves, tending their young. This auspicious day was begun some 32 years ago by a group of seabird researchers in Maine. Noting the lack of attention paid the… Read More
Seabirds Up Close
I’ve spent many summers watching seabirds from the deck of the Maine State Ferry, on boat tours to the Atlantic Puffin colony on Maine’s Eastern Egg Rock and, more recently, on Iceland’s rocky cliffsides. From common sightings, like gulls and terns, to more unusual ones, like storm petrels skimming close to the surface or gannets plunge diving into the water, it’s always a thrill to see what’s out there. The Double-crested Cormorant is a common bird to watch for. It’s is easy to spot from its characteristic behaviors: sitting low in the… Read More
Jean Mackay
The Nature Explorer’s Sketchbook
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