Gull swallows Tern whole near Isles of Shoals breeding colony

A Great Black-backed Gull swallows a Tern off the Seavey Island Breeding Colony

On a recent pelagic birdwatching cruise, birders were shocked to see a Great Black-backed Gull catch a Tern out of the air and proceed to swallow it whole. The amazing example of the predatory behavior of the largest species of sea gull took place on August 1st just off Seavey Island in NH. Seavey Island is the site of the Tern Restoration Project that, just a few short years ago, cleared the island of gulls and restored it as an active breeding colony for Common Terns, and even a few Arctic Terns and Roseate Terns.

• View slide show of Tern being swallowed whole by a Great Black-backed Gull

The entire event was captured with a digital camera and the photos are presented here in slide show form. They are presented in chronological order so that the progression of the Great Black-backed Gull devouring the hapless Tern can be seen. Although one eyewitness saw the Tern plucked from the air by the Gull, the specific species could not be identified. Because the overwhelming number of Terns that were present at the site on that day were Common Terns, it is most likely that this was the species captured. It was also speculated by several of the expert birders aboard the NH Audubon charter cruise who witnessed the event, that the captured Tern was probably a juvenile although the images are not definitive.

These images were captured using a point and shoot 7.1 Mega pixel digital camera from a moving boat at 10X optical zoom from a considerable distance. They have been cropped and resized to fit this format. They have been presented to give the best possible view of the action, sometimes at the expense of resolution. Those who were present with good birdwatching binoculars probably had a better view, but these may be the only photographs of the event.

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You may also enjoy these related articles by the same author:

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The Manchester Bird Watching Examiner is also the Maritime Headlines Examiner and also writes about Space Matters.