[texbirds] Forster's Tern - head turning and flicking; answer to FOTE legs sticking up

From: MBB22222@xxxxxxx
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:58:17 -0500 (EST)

With so much interest in FOTE with its legs up in the air I will add a few  
photos and explanation. Of course everybody who sent me an email was right 
-  FOTE was taking bath turning its body to submerge its back and twisting 
its neck  in the same time to hold the head in 'normal' position. I had a 
couple of  identical dark jokes that it looks like he is having backstroke â¦
 
With only one human known to be able turn his head about 180 degree (must  
do it very slowly and carefully)  birds can do that without much problem  
and are doing that very often for many reasons. Including head flicking, on  
ground or during flight, when they can make series of flicks in fraction of  
second. Perhaps it will be easier to illustrate all basic head turns (by 
FOTE)  (just please do not try to imitate these poses - it would be suicide).
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148802784/original_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148802784/original) 
(please  scroll down as image is long, so is a second one also)
 
And here is photo to illustrate how long tern and gull necks are, showing  
Least Tern, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Black Skimmer.
 
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148802788/original_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148802788/original) 
 
I have many, many images of bathing birds but FOTE seems to enjoy the bath  
the most. I will try in near future to make a photo set showing how much 
more  fun these terns have when bathing.
 
BTW I know that there are many people chasing reptiles and insects; here is 
 a Rough Green Snake with visitor which was traveling back and forth along 
the  snake body - anybody can name the visitor?
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148802781_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/image/148802781) 
 
Mark B Bartosik
Houston, Texas
_http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/mbb/from_the_field) 
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at 
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds

Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission 
from the List Owner

[texbirds] Forster's Tern - head turning and flicking; answer to FOTE legs sticking up

Other related posts: