A large portion of the marsh behind Botany Bay Beach is cordoned off to keep humans from interfering with breeding shore birds. Their nests are nothing more than depressions in the sand and aside from the obvious egg destruction by human feet many of these birds just don’t like to be disturbed by man or his pets while raising their young.

Breeding season was over when I took these images but a few young stragglers were on the beach on August 4th.

This young tern didn’t seem to know what to do. The sun had just come up and he probably should have been looking for breakfast.

An adult was nearby, but I didn’t see them interact.

This may be the same young bird, I spotted a bit further down the beach.