This is bird note.

Every summer, 50,000 sooty turns breed on Bush key in the dry tortugas Islands off the coast of Florida.

Each pair of these graceful black and white birds incubates their single egg in a scrape on the sand.

Then they bring back fish and squid from far offshore to feed the

young bird that hatches from it. The colony resounds what their calls. Watching the cloud of birds over this tiny island you are in the presence of

amazing travelers. The young turns will soon leave not to return for several years.

They'll travel out over the Caribbean and the Atlantic,

many of them as far as waters off West Africa before returning home.

On the wing day and night, they do not... Africa before returning home.

On the wing day and night, they do not rest on the water and only rarely land on floating

objects.

They even feed while aloft, grabbing their prey from the ocean surface. On the fly, they also capture fish

that have been chased out of the water by predators. In other words, they live in the air for

years at a time.

Even more amazing, they do not seem to sleep in the same way

as most animals.

Perhaps they catch a snooze in flight.

We just don't know. Some say sooty turns derive their nickname wide awake from the

kurwaki whack or wacky whack of their call. Now we know it also describes their sleeping habits.

For Birdnup, I'm Michael Stein.