The great chase of V97

Following yesterday’s close encounter with a sandwich tern with a coloured ring which we were unable to read today, we had an important mission to accomplish: Read That Ring! It was also Yehonathan’s first morning at the station, so he was already eager for some action! Bear in mind he politely refused my suggestion of him having some rest after his long journey from Israel. More proof that the words volunteer and exhausted don’t work well in the same sentence. A flock of sandwich terns was spotted soon after the search began and lucky enough the tern with the coloured ring from yesterday was one of the flock members! We immediately set off to read the ring. The weather was very windy which gave us the opportunity to get close to the flock from downwind. We were happy to find out that two more terns in had metal rings on them – three out of twenty-seven is a great ratio. One by one we got on all fours and started slowly crawling towards the flock in order not to startle them. We were equipped with the trusty Swarovski telescope, a pair of bins and a field notebook. We took TERNS looking through the scope as the wind made it increasingly difficult as time passed. Two times the birds took off and gave us mini heart attacks thinking we wouldn’t get a chance this good again. Fate smiled on us both times as the terns peacefully descended after being started by a sudden strong gust of the wind.

Our first success came when we read the coloured ringed – V97. One letter and two numbers that brought us so much joy. The next treat came when Yehonathan managed to take a high-res photo of the ring, always an amazing addition to any fieldwork! Our third treat was actually reading one of the metal rings which was on an adult tern. It took us a long time however we managed in the end.

Upon return, we undertook the weekly cleaning.

In the evening Simon treated us all to a lovely dinner (and a beer of course) in town. It was a refreshing breath of the urban life that we have already forgotten. 

 People: Simon S. Christiansen, Martin Y. Georgiev, Christina Ninou, Anders Odd Wulff Nielsen, Yehonathan Ben Aroya