Updates from the @ifv-whv.bsky.social's long-term individual-based study on common terns breeding at the Banter See in Wilhelmshaven; provided by me - Sandra. With a side of gull-billed terns from @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's conservation project.https://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mm4eakg2hk2fIn 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. :-)18 May 2026 07:31 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm4eakg2hk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mm4cc26eek2oBugging 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: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.25156818 May 2026 06:56 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mm4cc26eek2ohttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mlzxzkkhps2pPoorly aimed? Out of focus? Nope... ring reading time! After fluffy chick ringing probably the loveliest job of all. :-)17 May 2026 08:47 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlzxzkkhps2phttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mlxe5nc7ss2vHappy #SeabirdSaturday from the Banter See common tern colony, where 378 birds have now been registered by the antenna system, and 225 nests have been found. It's a synchronous season this year!16 May 2026 07:46 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlxe5nc7ss2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mlw2yhka2s2aLast year, @genmig.bsky.social turned her office @ifv-whv.bsky.social into a recording studio, and 6 kids from a local highschool interviewed scientists to learn about bird migration, that of the Banter See terns included. The result can now be enjoyed online: https://ifv-vogelwarte.de/en/news-and-info/archive/podcast-release-our-kids4kids-podcast-on-bird-migration-is-now-online15 May 2026 19:29 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlw2yhka2s2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mlnm5elxm22vHappy 3rd birthday to the tern exhibition at the Banter See! We celebrate with 362 registered birds and 153 clutches today. :-)12 May 2026 10:42 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlnm5elxm22vhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mll6e27ysc27“Counting cases, conserving species: addressing highly pathogenic avian influenza in wildlife”. Out now, and open access, in Biological Reviews: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/brv.7017311 May 2026 11:30 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mll6e27ysc27https://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mlg662qkjc24Happy #WorldMigratoryBirdDay! 🌍🐦 We're grateful to be able to study these amazing athletes as they connect continents, to learn when they are where, with the end goal of helping generations to come successfully complete the same journeys.09 May 2026 11:44 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlg662qkjc24https://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mlf2ykipqs2mToday, Junior Rangers visited to try out our Suitcase Science project. We drew & talked about terns; played tern-bingo to complete a pedigree & learn about variation in reproductive success; puzzled until we understood how terns get polluted by mercury; and turned postcards into migration routes.09 May 2026 01:14 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlf2ykipqs2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mldmflqxx22eHappy news before the weekend: 346 birds have now been registered, and the number of nests has shot up to 81 this morning! ❤️08 May 2026 11:20 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mldmflqxx22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3ml66w3zpic2gLook who arrived as well! 147 little field assistants made their way into one of our incubators. These laboratory-bred kissing bugs will help us collect blood samples from incubating terns. Stored in a fake egg for c. 20 minutes, they collect blood, which we then gratefully collect from them.06 May 2026 07:36 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml66w3zpic2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mkzkc4pq622cThe first eggs of the 2026 season are a fact. Four clutches were started yesterday, today we're at nine. ❤️04 May 2026 11:16 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkzkc4pq622chttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mko27uzkdc23How lovely! @tcansse.bsky.social installed a camera at one of the islands that make up the Banter See colony, and so we can see that the birds have started to spend the night on site now. ❤️29 Apr 2026 21:29 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mko27uzkdc23https://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mkhnn5iy6c2wSome very happy news on this Monday: over the weekend, two of our GPS-tagged gull-billed terns returned to Neufelderkoog and started uploading their data to the hub. Although the data transfer is not yet complete, both seem to have spent their winter in Guinea-Bissau.27 Apr 2026 08:28 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkhnn5iy6c2whttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mjyslbms7c2vOne week in, 149 birds have been registered. Among them is 25-yr-old Roy, currently the oldest bird of the population, after most other elderly terns died during the HPAI outbreaks of 2022 and 2023.21 Apr 2026 10:46 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjyslbms7c2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mjloumtsoc2pOut now in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment: a study in which we assessed whether mercury levels vary among feather types within individual terns, how feather mercury levels relate to those in blood, and whether all levels vary with sex and age in a similar way: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-026-15310-416 Apr 2026 05:36 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjloumtsoc2phttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mjhfzoqskk2pWow, after 8 birds arrived on the 12th of April, 57 more arrived on the 13th! I've not seen an 'arrival-explosion' like it. The birds seem excited about it too, wasting no time between arrival, courtship and the start of 'nest building'.14 Apr 2026 12:47 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjhfzoqskk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mjgstq4jac2qIn other lovely news: the first gull-billed terns have returned over the weekend too. You can follow their stories on the blog of @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's website: https://gelochelidon.de/blog/gull-billed-terns-are-back14 Apr 2026 07:03 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjgstq4jac2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mjebgyxgd22bAs an update: 6 more birds were registered by the system yesterday, such that 8 birds are known to have arrived in total, with more spotted today. Synchronous, but not early, as the first-arrival summary-graph for the years 1994-2026 shows:13 Apr 2026 06:47 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjebgyxgd22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/commonternproject.bsky.social/post/3mjbwj77ep22oLive from the field: they’re here! The first two registrations of the 2026 season are a fact and go to Calderon and Pricilla. ❤️12 Apr 2026 08:26 +0000at://did:plc:cxpg6uoiem77h5ms67fkuxgm/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjbwj77ep22o