Monday, July 21, 2014

One good Tern

… deserves another

The story started innocently enough. I had added one of my tern photos to my Fine Art America gallery and that resulted in a Facebook post. My friend Larry, always ready with a witty remark, commented “One good tern deserves another.” FAA-tern-and-chick

Of course I had to respond.  I warned him that I had lots of tern photos. He thought that “The little fellow looks a little bare. I think he needs a terncoat.” I warned him that the discussion “may take a tern for the worse.”

And so the story took another tern.

Mama, are these car tracks?

Mama, are these the car tracks you warned me about?

Yes dear, you are standing in the middle of the road.

Yes dear, you are standing in the middle of the road.

Run for your life, her terning back!

Run for your life, he's TERNing back!

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Rescue chopper?

Mother tern frantically follows rescue helicopter toward hospital.

 

The sky terns dark.

 

THE END.

Of course, my friend Cathy couldn’t settle for this and terned on me, “Ludwig. !?? I'm surprised. You … love birds.” I assured her that “only the story here took a tern for the worse - no terns were harmed in the filming of this story. Only in telling.”

So now it is my tern to to wrap this up and tell you, dear reader, a little more about this story and this place.

There is a marvelous rookery in Florida where terns and seagulls hatch their young right by a popular beach. Florida has had a love for cars on their hard-packed beaches – you heard of Daytona? – and this place is one of the parks where cars are allowed. There are safeguards and restrictions.

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LJK12827-P2-1024

You can see the wild life area signs and ropes, and the beach in front of the rookery is also off limits to vehicles.

The little fellow in the story above strolled out into the “people area”.

Royal tern chicks - waiting for lunch

Last I saw of the little tyke, his mother was leading the youngster back to the rookery. So to the best of my knowledge the story terned out OK. Alright, alright, I will tern it off now!

Thank you read reader for putting up with this story, hope you enjoyed the photos. Now it’s your turn to make a witty comment.

.:.

© 2014 Ludwig Keck