Later today I’ll have a series of gorgeous pictures taken on yesterday’s White Tern walk run by the local Audubon society. For now I have one rather mediocre “spot the. . .” photo and some mediocre reveals, but trust me, the ones from my “Hawaii: Days 5 and 6” post will be much better.
In the meantime, can you spot the White Tern (Gygis alba) in this photo? The reveal will be at 12:30 pm Chicago time. Click to enlarge.
I don’t know whether this one will be easy or hard, as I watched it for a long time.
White terns are unique among seabirds in that they build no nests. They lay a single egg in a tree fork or cup, incubate it, and, after the chick hatches, it has to hold onto the branch for six weeks, waiting to be fed by its two monogamous parents, until it’s ready to fly. (They still come back to the branch for feeding for a period after fledging.)
The chick in this picture, we were told, is about a month old, and will soon be testing its wings.
Like a bump on a log.
I would put this one down as easy. Looks like a small banana plant in this photo. Hawaiian banana’s are pretty good but smaller than the ones from central America. Also very expensive.
5 seconds – my peepers just happened to look in the right place. What a lush piece of heaven that is!
It looks like a tiny owlet from this distance.