weblog 2026 |
|
[home] [weblog] [science] [people] [station] [ny-ålesund] [sightings] [sitemap] [nederlands] |
|
Growth curves of arctic terns | 28 July 2026 |
|
For the first time in the last 5 years, arctic tern chicks seem to survive in the tankyard. The tankyard is closed for foxes, but we had a glaucous gull (every year the same individual), which predated on the chicks. Last year there was vague news that this individual had died. Or is this year its nest predated by a polar bear who ate all eggs and young of glaucous gulls on Prins Heinrichsøya. The effect is, that we can monitor the growth of the chicks. This might offer a link with the fjord ecosystem, in which the polar water is changed to atlantic (warmer) water. We enter the tankyard  I am wearing a safe hat. The terns are attacking and try to make holes in our head. This hat, a present by Daan Vreugdenhil, makes me feel safe. The orange colour and the big print HOLLAND also help with this feeling. It has to be a soft head as helmets will break the beak of the adults. We enter with a lot of boxes and fill these with all tern chicks, we can find, while the parents attack us. We are weighing and measuring the chicks. A big advantage is that a chick has already large enough legs to ring when it is born. That makes individual recognition possible. Jelle is weighing the chicks, Douwe measures the size of head+bill and winglength.  Fieke Rader made all pictures and wanted a last photo of us before going away.... charming.  | |
[home] [weblog] [science] [people] [station] [ny-ålesund] [sightings] [sitemap] [nederlands]
|
|||||||
| [previous] | [present] | [overview] | |||||
 |
 |
 |
|||||
| 20270730, 11:47 | 20260728, 15:00 | all items shown with small pics | |||||
| Ossian Sars | Growth curves of arctic terns |
This page has been given the following keywords: [arctic tern] [catching] You can click on each keyword to get an overview about related pages. |