Day No. 13. Today I will tell You something about a bird which is extremely rare in Germany today but is spread allover the world. In fact, I guess no one of you has ever seen this elegant tern. It is the Gull-billed Tern (in German: Lachseeschwalbe, in French: Sterne hansel, in Dutch: Lachtern). It is a medium sized tern which has a black bill and appears relatively white, even if the upper side of the bird is gray. In Summer the Gull-billed tern has a black cap. These terns prefer sandy areas where they can find lizards, insects, amphibians and small mammals. So their prey is not typical for gulls and terns. Europe originally had two big populations, one in the North and Central Europe and the other at the Mediterranean Sea, where I saw this beautiful bird in the Camargue in France in 1983. Typical breeding areas in the North were natural rivers with stony little islands in Bavaria. But the regulation of our rivers and the fact that there are no restricted areas where the bird could breed and the destruction of the habitats of their prey lead to the total extinction in the inland of Germany. Populations in The Netherlands and Northern Jutland vanished too. The very little rest of the Northern population of this species lives in Schleswig-Holstein, exactly in th Neufelder Koog in Dithmarschen. In 1980 there was a rest of 150 breeding pairs in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. Last year the dwindled population of 31 (!) breeding couples was the rest of the whole population in Central Europe. The breeding area in Neufelderkoog is protected now against human beings and predators. But the future of this bird in Central Europe seems to be dark. Without the protection of their breeding areas and (!) the protection of their habitats there wont be a chance for this bird. Inbreeding is another big problem if there is no exchange with other populations anymore. So today its a sad story.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 08:16:49 +0000
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