Spending all that time with the Least Tern colony gave me an insight to their lives and I observed this strange behavior. When both parents were gone another adult showed up and if I am right tried to kill the chick. The mom came back after a while and attacked the intruder and chased it away. Chick survived...this time....but the chick got a hard beating.
Is there an ornithologist that can confirm that this is what I observed?
I have many shots of this series, even the moment the mom came back. It happened several times.
1DX
700mm
ISO1250
f: 11
1/1600
skimmer
Full frame