!Warning...Graphic Content!

Yesterday I took a quick boat ride over to Cockenoe Island in Westport, CT to check out the Common Tern colony. While observing the begging chicks being fed by adults, a small ruckus broke out at the north end of the sand spit. Out from the colony flew an adult Herring Gull with something in its bill. As I had suspected/feared, it was a tern chick. The gull downed the whole chick as effortlessly as Joey Chestnut throws down a hot dog.

I grabbed a shot of the incident from a distance.

Herring Gull with tern chick by the head as adult helplessly tries to intervene

moments later, life goes on in the center of the small colony

It's not easy being a tern chick on Cockenoe Island!

 - NB

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