Hello All,
After seeing the Sooty Tern at Cemlyn Bay I Thought I would look through my bird books to see what I could find out about this beautiful tern. I read in "birds of the world " by David Alderton that amazingly sooty terns can not swim but will spend 3 months out in the oceans and will sleep on the wing. I found this very strange for an ocean going seabird. My Question is why can't sooty terns swim, is it their body shape or is it that their feathers are not suitable. I did see the sooty tern at cemlyn bay land on the water whilst being chased by the sandwich terns but it seemed to struggle, flapping its wings as if it was taking a bath and was airbourne a couple of seconds later.
Ste
ps When I say swim I mean float on the water as a gull would do.
After seeing the Sooty Tern at Cemlyn Bay I Thought I would look through my bird books to see what I could find out about this beautiful tern. I read in "birds of the world " by David Alderton that amazingly sooty terns can not swim but will spend 3 months out in the oceans and will sleep on the wing. I found this very strange for an ocean going seabird. My Question is why can't sooty terns swim, is it their body shape or is it that their feathers are not suitable. I did see the sooty tern at cemlyn bay land on the water whilst being chased by the sandwich terns but it seemed to struggle, flapping its wings as if it was taking a bath and was airbourne a couple of seconds later.
Ste
ps When I say swim I mean float on the water as a gull would do.