It’s the time of year to make baby White-fronted Terns (Tara)! I watched their mating ritual for an hour or so down at the Coastguard boat ramp in Sumner the other day. It goes something like this: Hopeful male catches a little fish. Flies back to the main encampment and offers said fish to a female. She chooses to accept or decline said offer of fish. If offer is rejected, the male flies off to land somewhere else to offer the fish to another female – and so it goes on, round and round. If it goes on for too long the poor dead fish becomes quite tattered looking. Eventually a female grabs the fish, which means it’s all on! A few weeks later 1 or 2 eggs are produced. Roughly 24 days later a chick is born – and so the circle of life continues. The photos are all taken using a Canon R7 cropped sensor camera with the Canon RF 800 F/11 lens attached.
