water view No. 15
by George Steinmetz - © Corbis. All Rights Reserved. - © George Steinmetz/Corbis
Terns nesting
13 May 2005, Mexico, Mexico --- Each spring, some 70,000 elegant terns (95% of the world population) gather to nest on Isla Rasa in the Sea of Cortes, between Baja California and the Mexican mainland. Elegant terns create their nesting sites inside colonies of Heermann's Gulls, which are able to protect the terns by beating off attacks by yellow-footed gulls. Enriqueta Velarde, a Mexican scientist who studies birds on Rasa each nesting season, says this kind of egg predation is more common in years of poor fishing, as the gulls have less to eat. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis






















