WIDE-A-WAKES

Wake up!

Our hometown of Port Macquarie services Lord Howe Island, 590 kms out in the Pacific Ocean. Among the vast variety of birds on the island we could find maybe 100,000 sooty terns (Sterna fuscata) nesting.

Lord Howe Island was not discovered until 17 February, 1788 when HMS Supply was sailing to Norfolk Island to establish yet another British penal settlement. Would you believe?...Wildlife from LHI saved the mighty British Navy in Port Jackson (Sydney) from dying of starvation!

Mt. Lidgbird and Mt. Gower tower over the lagoon

What’s so special about sooty terns?                                        

They are pelagic - living out over the vast ocean for most of the year - so must sleep ‘on the wing’ by shutting down half of their brain while flying.                                   

No wonder they’re called ‘wide-a-wakes’!...plus they like to share with you their noisy awakeness at night.

So did one of these clever little birds just think it was a good idea to take a nap in cruise, then showed his mates how to do it?                    

Or did our clever Creator give them all this ability?