https://www.gillianoverholser.com/blog en-us Copyright 2023 Gillian Overholser (Gillian Overholser Nature Photography) Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:37:00 GMT Mon, 16 Mar 2020 07:37:00 GMT https://www.gillianoverholser.com/img/s/v-12/u170361545-o159293205-50.jpg https://www.gillianoverholser.com/blog 120 120 https://www.gillianoverholser.com/blog/2019/8/the-lightest-least-tern Back when the Least Terns were caring for their newborn chicks out on Sandy Point Reservation, we all noticed one baby that looked different than the others ... it was lighter ... a pale yellow with no spots at all! Yesterday I went back. The Lighter Least Tern is almost grown up, but still noticeably paler than any other juvenile on the beach. Sadly, the lighter one doesn't seem welcome in the flock. It is excluded by all the other Terns except its mother, who is still feeding it. I was so sorry to see this, but I understand. Tribes don't like those who are different. Its' just life. Here is a shot of the lighter Least Tern going to sleep for the night, alone and away from the other young Terns.
The Lighter Least Tern Asleep, Alone

]]> (Gillian Overholser Nature Photography) least tern tribe https://www.gillianoverholser.com/blog/2019/8/the-lightest-least-tern Wed, 07 Aug 2019 01:10:53 GMT https://www.gillianoverholser.com/blog/2019/7/why-piping-plovers Can you see the extra legs under this mama Piping Plover? Well, she's not actually a four-legged bird ... that is her newborn baby taking cover! For most beach-goers on the Atlantic Coast,  Piping Plovers are either an unknown or just "The Reason Our Beach Gets Shut Down Every Spring."  I want to help change that by showing just some of what makes these tiny threatened shorebirds so special. Piping Plover babies are able to walk just hours after they hatch. This is because unlike most bird babies, they find their own food by foraging, and therefore, they NEED to walk ... right away! But it also means that these teensy cotton-ball sized young are incredibly vulnerable to every type of predator right from birth. The day after they are born, Piping Plover babies start roaming the beaches. Plover parents spend their time patrolling the beach, corralling the young, and trying to ward off predators including Gulls, Coyotes, and Crows. Since Plover parents aren't exactly large themselves  ... maybe 7 inches long at most -- it is a mighty and pretty much endless effort, which sometimes works and sometimes does not. In a nest of 3-4 chicks, parents are lucky if even one survives to fledge. 

]]> (Gillian Overholser Nature Photography) Babies Beach Piping Plover https://www.gillianoverholser.com/blog/2019/7/why-piping-plovers Wed, 31 Jul 2019 12:23:28 GMT