Here’s an update on gull-billed tern L49, whose GPS showed us that it died in France while traveling south: although google street view suggested a power line might have been the problem, the corpse actually suggests that the bird has been shot.
Gull-billed tern conservation
@gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social
Updates from the Gull-billed tern conservation project working to prevent the last central European population from going extinct, located in Dithmarschen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. See also https://gelochelidon.de/home
Lachstern L21 brengt jong T92 een lekkere dikke sprinkhaan. 😋 Gull-billed tern L21 brings a nice fat cricket to his chick T92. 😋 @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social
Het Lachsternseizoen is nog niet voorbij 🥳 Dit is één van de zendervogels die momenteel nog in Groningen zit.
Common Tern Project@commonternproject.bsky.social · 6d agoCurrent status of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's birds we deployed with a GPS logger : 7 birds are out of range, and 25 scattered across Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal.
Bloedheet gisteren, 36°C. Deze jonge Lachstern had het ook warm. Video gemaakt vanaf een bootje, dus het beeld schommelt een beetje... Hot yesterday, 36°C. This young Gull-billed Tern was hot too. Video shot from a boat, so the image is a bit shaky...
Current status of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's birds we deployed with a GPS logger : 7 birds are out of range, and 25 scattered across Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal.
Meanwhile in Noord-Holland. One of our gull-billed tern chicks doing some playful flight training in between feedings and naps. With slootjes (ditches) full of frogs and a parent nearby bringing them on life can be easy. Thanks to Fred Visscher for the lovely footage.
Lachstern - Gull-billed tern L37 jaagt een kokmeeuw weg die de net gevangen sprinkhaan van zijn jong wilde stelen. L37 chases a black-headed gull away, who wanted to steal a cricket from his chick. @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social
Lachstern - Gull-billed Tern 😍 @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social
The good news just keeps coming and coming today. Look at these sensational data provided by the tracking project we have with @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social!
See that cute gull-billed tern chick thinking of leaving the safety of the frog- and electric fence that allowed it to grow up behind? Well, it did, and with a logger, so that you can also see its first trip away from the colony on the right. ❤️
Two photos that make us very happy this morning – story below. :-)
Out now & open access in Avian Pathology - a collaborative paper showing how highly pathogenic avian influenza (clade 2.3.4.4b euBB) was introduced, and led to high mortality, in breeding colonies of black-headed gulls and common terns in Germany in 2023: doi.org/10.1080/0307...
Lachstern - Gull-billed Tern 😍 Zo benieuwd welke geheimen de gps-zender van deze dame ons gaat vertellen!
In other lovely news: the breeding season of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social is well underway too and parents of the first three nests have been identified. Here are L28 and L13, last-year sweethearts, this year breeding at nest 3. More news on the blog: gelochelidon.de/home. :-)
Happy 3rd birthday to the tern exhibition at the Banter See! We celebrate with 362 registered birds and 153 clutches today. :-)
Happy #SeabirdSaturday from the Banter See common tern colony, where 378 birds have now been registered by the antenna system, and 225 nests have been found. It's a synchronous season this year!
Excited to share our new paper out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social! Here, we investigated how sex and age shape mitochondrial function under natural conditions in a long-lived seabird, the Common tern. Read the paper here for more information👇 doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
Sex and age shape mitochondrial function in a long-lived seabird
Summary: Age and sex influence mitochondrial function in a long-lived seabird, offering insights into ageing and individual differences in performance.
doi.org
Today, Junior Rangers visited to try out our Suitcase Science project. We drew & talked about terns; played tern-bingo to complete a pedigree & learn about variation in reproductive success; puzzled until we understood how terns get polluted by mercury; and turned postcards into migration routes.
Happy news before the weekend: 346 birds have now been registered, and the number of nests has shot up to 81 this morning! ❤️
Some very happy news on this Monday: over the weekend, two of our GPS-tagged gull-billed terns returned to Neufelderkoog and started uploading their data to the hub. Although the data transfer is not yet complete, both seem to have spent their winter in Guinea-Bissau.
One week in, 149 birds have been registered. Among them is 25-yr-old Roy, currently the oldest bird of the population, after most other elderly terns died during the HPAI outbreaks of 2022 and 2023.
Surprising too: we so far have registered 22 males and 43 females. The current age range is 4 - 19 years.
As an update: 6 more birds were registered by the system yesterday, such that 8 birds are known to have arrived in total, with more spotted today. Synchronous, but not early, as the first-arrival summary-graph for the years 1994-2026 shows:
Live from the field: they’re here! The first two registrations of the 2026 season are a fact and go to Calderon and Pricilla. ❤️
In other lovely news: the first gull-billed terns have returned over the weekend too. You can follow their stories on the blog of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's website: gelochelidon.de/blog/gull-bi...
Proud to present: Suitcase Science, a new outreach format containing 6 assignments to take on a journey to schools in the region, to teach kids about terns, how to study them, their fascinating behaviour and some of the things that threaten them. Wanna book us? Drop me a line. :-)
A richly rewarding two days reviewing @ifv-whv.bsky.social: thriving under the brilliant leadership of Sandra Bouwhuis & Miriam Liedvogel. An exciting programme of research into avian migration & life histories with many future stars. Outstanding @commonternproject.bsky.social museum by frozen sea!
This #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience I would like to say a big THANK YOU to the amazing women and girls I currently have the pleasure of sharing my #ternscience journey with. Onwards and upwards we go! ❤️
Gull-billed terns for the win! Anna’s final PhD chapter published in Evol Applications doi.org/10.1111/eva.... Thanks to all lovely collaborators, especially @commonternproject.bsky.social @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social @robertrollins1892.bsky.social & @dornitholges.bsky.social for funding
