Hatching has started at @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's colony site too. ❤️
Fresh as can be. Hatching has started at the Banter See common tern colony. ❤️
In addition, he found older birds to have lower maximum rates of respiration (ETS), while also having lower levels of proton leak (LEAK), with the latter leading to older birds having greater mitochondrial efficiency in ATP production, suggesting mixed effects of senescence and individual quality.
The Banter See breeding season in numbers so far: 226 males and 210 females (aged 2 - 25) have been registered, 319 clutches have been produced, 257 chicks have hatched, 93 blood samples have been collected and 48 birds have been caught for our geolocator-project.
Matteo measured 4 traits and found that incubating females have higher baseline and maximum rates of respiration (ROUTINE and ETS), as well as levels of ATP synthesis (OXPHOS), than males. This might reflect the energetic demands of egg laying and/or their larger share of incubation duties.
Thanks for having joined us, @matteobeccardi.bsky.social, and thanks for the wonderful collaboration @cyanistesnord.bsky.social, @oscarvedder.bsky.social, and @pablosalmon.bsky.social too!
Common Tern Project
I title this arty photo "Dedication"! @ccrowther.bsky.social did great at Pint of Science last night: how long should you wait for your mate to return from migration before concluding "screw this, likely dead"? - Bummed you missed it? Come to @isbe2026.bsky.social or inspect a poster at #ExE2026.
In other lovely news: the breeding season of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social is well underway too and parents of the first three nests have been identified. Here are L28 and L13, last-year sweethearts, this year breeding at nest 3. More news on the blog: gelochelidon.de/home. :-)
Common Tern Project
Common Tern Project
Common Tern Project
Common Tern Project
Common Tern Project
Common Tern Project
The 2-year-olds have started to arrive en masse and, with 83, now make up 18% of the registered birds at the colony. At 470 of those, we are exactly 70 above the number we had this time last year. Food is looking good too, and the chicks are growing nicely. ❤️
Bugging is underway, and we are missing @matteobeccardi.bsky.social who spent two seasons supplementing the team to collect data on sex- and age-specific mitochondrial functioning in the terns. His paper on this just came out in @jexpbiol.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
