The Little Tern

Near where I work, there is a tern habitat where the terns return to every year to live and nest. When they are all together in the air, they make a certain screeching caw sound that is so distinct to them. They fly in erratic circles and screech and it echos all around.

A lot of people think the terns are seagulls. But they are different. Terns look like art deco seagulls. They are thinner and more angular. 

Not everyone likes the terns. Someone near where I work tried to scare off the terns by blasting cannon ball sounds. It didn't work luckily. The terns aren't so easily scared.

One day, my coworker found a baby tern. She tried to feed it water and cat food. She called the local wildlife rehabilitation center and they told her to return the baby to the nesting area of the terns. She had to crawl a very high latter to get to warehouse rooftop. 

At the top, all the other terns nesting on the roof turned their heads as their kinfolk was returned to them. They blinked their eyes and a few of them chortled hellos. The baby tern rustled his feathers and waddled to the middle of the crowd, hopefully back to his mother.

I got to see the baby tern before its adventure back home. 

He was confused and stepping in the cat food that was meant to nourish him. He was ready to go home and be reunited with bird folk.

I love having encounters with animals, especially when it is a happy ending. I hope this little tern is somewhere soaring up in the sky, with only a distant memory of that very strange day he was offered cat food and kept in a cage.