Artic Tern on Nest Click on picture to enlarge Photograph http://puffin.bird.audubon.org/virtual/arte.html

In late summer the sky around the lighthouse is full of noise and birds. Mostly it is Artic Terns and Oyster Catchers that you see and hear the most. The adults are teaching the new chicks how to fly. I always thought that baby birds when they were big enough just took off and flew. That may be true to some extent but the ones around the lighthouse are not real accomplished at flying the first few times. So the adults are conducting flight training, which consists of coaching the youngsters to follow them as they dive and circle. Often the young bird's circles are more like a zigzag pattern of lines, as they seemed finding gracefully gliding around corners difficult. Landing is also a difficult task and they seem to come in with a bang instead of the graceful glide of the adults.

The youngsters I am the most concerned about are the Artic Terns as they have a long trip ahead of them. They will soon start a migration with their parents, which will take them to Antarctica and surrounding area. They stay until they are two years old and then migrate back to their birthplace without the help of their parents! So these clumsy birds I am watching now will be back in two years. How they remember the way home is a great mystery and an unbelieveable feat.

As I watch them try to fly around I am amazed that they will soon be in Antarctica.

Sharma

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You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.

I have three books which are directly related to this column. The Last Lighthouse tells how we bought our lighthouse, the day by day journal of a year at Eshaness entitled A Year in the Lighthouse and in Scottish Lighthouses our lighthouse is featured in the 31 lighthouses presented. You can find out more about these books and other I have written at my official author web site.