St Lucia: Sooty tern central.

Sooty tern in at the St Lucia estuary mouth

The Sooty tern is the planets most abundant tern with a total global population estimated at approximately 15 million…. Flocks of 1000+ birds are often seen in the waters off the Northern Kwazulu-natal coastline…. one would therefore assume they would be an easy bird to find in KZN…… think again! Unlike many of the other terns on the South African coastline they prefer not to roost on land and are largely pelagic by nature, resting occasionally on floating debris but are mostly on the wing (even when sleeping!). The only time they usually touch land is to breed on Islands in the tropics, with the nearest breeding sites to South Africa being Europa Island in the Mozambique channel and Segundas Archipelago in Northern Mozambique respectively. Their pelagic habits therefore make them largely inaccessible to the predominantly land-bound birdwatchers of mainland South Africa.  

Luckily for us though, birds don’t read books and therefore aren’t always 100 percent sure how they should behave…As a result the tern roost at St Lucia has over the last number of years been an exception to the rule and produced regular sightings of this distinctive tern. Interestingly, it is also not just a case of one ‘lost’ or ‘confused’ individual because up to 3 have been observed at the St Lucia tern roost simultaneously in recent years.  These regular (yet sporadic) sightings of Sooty tern have earned St Lucia the reputation as the best site in South Africa to see these birds (without having to bob on the ocean, turn green and feed the fishes).​

When at the roost, the Sooty tern generally ‘sticks out like a sore thumb’ amongst the other paler tern species and, generally, is also one of the noisiest. Its distinctive call can usually be heard long before one reaches the roost. After watching the tern for dozens of hours, I have got the impression that the Sooty tern is not familiar with roosting etiquette. They move noisily through the other terns, harassing them and seemingly gaining great pleasure in irritating them. Eventually one of the larger (usually Swift terns) thinks enough-is-enough and chases it off. In protest, the Sooty tern then noisily circles the roost a few times before landing and picking up where he/she left off.
 
During periods when it is present, the Sooty tern can be virtually guaranteed at St Lucia’s tern roost as long as one has time, patience and perseverance. It is impossible to know when the Sooty tern(s) will be out on a hunting foray but eventually they will return to the roost- and when they do you will definitely know about it!

---

Sooty tern 'sticking out like a sore thumb' amongst other tern species, St Lucia