Kiritimati: Aeon Point Sooty Tern Colony
At the very southern part of the Kiritimati near the Aeon Point there is a very large sooty tern colony in the remote part of the island’s mainland, far away from any settlements (it was actually here that the British tested nuclear devices). The sooty terns numbers in hundreds of thousands, in fact, more sooty terns nest on Kiritimati than anywhere else in the world and the colony near Aeon Point is the world’s largest. Birds were everywhere in the air and on the ground, and hundreds if not thousands of small flightless chicks were running around in the grass. Sooty terns nest right on the ground, laying single white eggs. Once the birds can fly, they fly out to sea in large flocks and spend a staggering 3-10 years without returning back to land. They also can’t land in water!
