To every thing, tern, tern, tern

Arctic terns are so aggressive - it´s the bird I think B hates the most.  The first time I was introduced to them, he wanted to show me how they are, so he took me out to an open field - I had no idea birds nested in huge open fields, silly me at the time (10 years ago) thought birds only nested in trees - and said, “Watch this.”  I sat in the car and thought it strange that he was taking a glass squeegee with him to the field, but whatever.

He took a few steps out and the birds started swirling overhead and making a strange “clicking” sound.  He reached down to pick up a baby bird and then the terns really started attacking.  Every time they´d start clicking, they´d dive and would go for the highest point - hence the squeegee.  That way the birds would only get so far as the squeegee.

The birds attacked the car, got past the squeegee and left him with a few small puncture wounds, and I understood why he didn´t like terns!  Not that he ever made a habit out of picking up baby birds, but if you even do so much as accidentally wander into a nesting field, they will let loose the furor of the birds from Alfred Hitchcock´s movie “The Birds”.

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