{"id":33004,"date":"2015-11-21T05:33:09","date_gmt":"2015-11-21T11:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=33004"},"modified":"2024-02-05T03:43:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T10:43:40","slug":"a-forsters-tern-in-a-canada-goose-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/11\/21\/a-forsters-tern-in-a-canada-goose-nest\/","title":{"rendered":"Forster’s Tern in a Canada Goose nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Forster’s Tern wasn’t trying to take over this Canada Goose nest when I photographed it but it might look that way in this image. The man-made nest is located at Farmington Bay WMA<\/a><\/span> in Davis County, Utah and this is what it looked like in June of 2012.<\/p>\n

\"Forster'sForster’s Tern in a Canada Goose nest – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/3200, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Forster’s Terns do breed in Utah but they wouldn’t select an elevated nest instead they use unlined scrapes in mud or sand, rafts of floating vegetation<\/span><\/a> or at times on the top of muskrat lodges. The Forster’s Tern in breeding plumage shown in the image above was just taking a break between feeding and hunting and the nest was just a convenient rest stop.<\/p>\n

I’ve photographed other bird species in or on this same nest including Great Blue Herons and Belted Kingfishers.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Forster\u2019s Tern photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Forster’s Tern wasn’t trying to take over this Canada Goose nest when I photographed it but it might look that way in this image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1022,697,1412,26],"tags":[4053,4343,2120,4094,4075,4450,165,4354,2090,629,4095],"class_list":["post-33004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-forsters-terns","category-utah","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-canada-goose","tag-forsters-tern-2","tag-marsh","tag-nest","tag-nesting-season","tag-spring","tag-sterna-forsteri","tag-tern","tag-terns","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/forsters-tern-nest-mia-mcpherson-8677.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-8Ak","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4752,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/08\/forsters-terns\/","url_meta":{"origin":33004,"position":0},"title":"Forster’s Terns","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"When I moved from Florida to Utah I felt it was fortunate that some of the nonbreeding birds I used to see in Florida during the winter I now get to see in breeding plumage on their nesting grounds.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Forster's Tern in breeding plumage on nest","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/forsters-tern-nest-mia-mcpherson-2961.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/forsters-tern-nest-mia-mcpherson-2961.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"September 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I had fun testing my skills by photographing several immature Forster's Terns that were hunting for and catching prey at Farmington Bay WMA two days ago.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Forster's Tern with a small fish, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/forsters-tern-immature-with-prey-mia-mcpherson-5593.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/forsters-tern-immature-with-prey-mia-mcpherson-5593.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/forsters-tern-immature-with-prey-mia-mcpherson-5593.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/forsters-tern-immature-with-prey-mia-mcpherson-5593.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15636,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/08\/12\/hovering-forsters-tern\/","url_meta":{"origin":33004,"position":4},"title":"Hovering Forster’s Tern","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I photographed this adult Forster's Tern in flight as it foraged for food above Glover Pond near Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hovering Forster's Tern","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/forsters-tern-hovering-mia-mcpherson-5987.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/forsters-tern-hovering-mia-mcpherson-5987.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/forsters-tern-hovering-mia-mcpherson-5987.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/forsters-tern-hovering-mia-mcpherson-5987.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37980,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/08\/an-adult-forsters-tern-hovering-over-prey\/","url_meta":{"origin":33004,"position":5},"title":"An Adult Forster’s Tern Hovering Over Prey","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I photographed this Forster's Tern hovering over prey there were several others in the area doing the same thing which makes it difficult to decide on which bird to photograph.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Forster's Tern hovering over prey, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/forsters-tern-flight-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/forsters-tern-flight-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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