Humans created this barren interior. A P E birds' turn to create a landscape that shivers with their vigorous motion, that vibrates with their continual noise. The birds feed off the richness of reef waters. Here reefscape meets landscape, the one creating the other. Another reason for the huge tern population is that there are no seagulls on these remote islands.
Gulls eat the eggs or take the young chicks.
However, there are no bonds of family feeling among their membership. To gulls, just about anything is foorl, including their young relations. The tern nests are a casual jumble of sticks, guano, and dead grass. The colony is divided into zones according to the age of the chicks. To one side I see a zone of nests where the egg has not yet hatched and a parent sits on guard.