Common tern | Flussseeschwalbe | Sterna hirundo - WIlhelmshaven, Banter See, Germany, August 2021

Wilhelmshaven inhabits a large colony of common terns with about 500 breeding pairs. Typically for the city, it is not located at a very nice natural location, but in a highly industrialised area. Specifically, the colony is located on 6 artifical concrete islands in an old harbour, now used as recreational lake site for people. Nevertheless, this location made it possible to monitor the colony precisely: Since about 30 years, the Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte Helgoland" is running an uncomparable 30 year long term dataset, providing an invaluable data about life-history traits from the terns for research.

Canon EOS R5  |  Canon 400 mm  f/5.6 L USM  |  1/2000  |  f 5.6  |  ISO 1000