Fairy Tern and Tropicbird Progress (3).

So back to our breeding seabirds for an update. Firstly the Fairy terns:
the first juvenile looks well and fully-fledged with only the lack of the purple band at the base of its bill to distinguish it now from an adult.
the second juvenile took me by surprise by flying off as I approached! It circled for a while and then returned but I kept my distance so as not to disturb it again. The bird still has clear juvenile barring on its wings and has not developed yet its full tail plumage but is clearly developing well.
Finally our egg has hatched and we have new young chick on the branch I have opted to name this bird “Fred” and will keep you informed of his/her development.

As for the tropicbirds:
· It does appear that the first nesting site has been abandoned.
· The adult is still at the second site and appears to be incubating.
· Our chick, to be known hence forth as “Tina”, has attracted a great deal of attention and feedback following my posting of its picture on the blog. Tina appears to be doing well with evident of growth over the last week.
Because of the relatively low number of breeding pairs of Tropicbirds on Denis I have decided to map the known breeding sites and will seek feedback from island staff to make it as comprehensive as possible before posting at a future date.