Priscilla H. C. Crawford

Today was a first!  An artist in the field with me! Debby Kaspari, natural history artist and illustrator, joined us in the field to sketch Least Terns.  She is illustrating an article for Oklahoma Today about rivers in the state.  It was a great day to show off our most promising tern colony – perfect weather and a good stage to watch a variety of tern behavior.  This morning at this colony, most of the nests have hatched.  Tern chicks ranging from 7-10 days old to just a day or so old are scurrying around the sand or hunkering down under a parent’s wing.  So much family dynamics to see – feeding, protecting, teaching.