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Forester's Tern
Non-breeding plumage
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Where: Gwynn's Island, VA • Chesapeake Bay
Notes: Wildlife photography has disciplined me to sit and wait for the moment I hope to capture and share. This not only helps me to practice patience but it allows me the unique opportunity to observe behaviors that I would have otherwise not witnessed. I crept up and knelt behind a levy wall, near some old dock posts that a group of about two dozen Forester's Terns had claimed as perches that moning. The flock rose to the air, circled and then settled, each bird attempting to claim a post of its own. With a few more terns than post tops, a few birds were left seat-less and would attempt to evict others off their spots. It was like a game of musical chairs and the music had stopped. Occasionally a bird would be bounced of its claim, but clearly the advantage was with those that had grabbed some real estate first.
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