Tern Prey ID Factfile - photographs needed

Calling all photographers - we need your HELP!

The Roseate Tern LIFE Recovery Project is planning on creating an online Tern Prey ID Resource for our UK and Irish wardens/rangers to use during chick provisioning studies. Prey identification and size is a tricky task even for the most experienced surveyors. While distinguishing between sandeel, clupeids and other type of prey is relatively straightforward, further distinction between sprat and herring is more relevant than ever in the light of the observed and foreseen changes caused by climate change. And what about estimating prey size if half of it is obscured by the bird’s head?
 
We hope that for both new and experienced wardens this will be a useful addition to their toolkit. By providing multiple images to support the prey (e.g. fish, crustaceans, pipefish, squid) identification, it will also provide a better perspective of how it looks in the tern bill (compared to how it is portrayed in a fish ID book). This is especially important as wardens only have limited time to identify the prey species.
 
To this end, we would like to ask you to send in photos of any UK/ Irish breeding tern species holding various prey items to help making this resource more comprehensive. We will of course credit any image used. Please send the images to Chantal.Macleod-Nolan@rspb.org.uk by 28 February 2019. 

Photo Credits: Chantal Macleod-Nolan