Blue skies and calmer seas

As something of a follow-up to the previous post, today was one of those exceptional surprises: a Bank Holiday when the sun shines! I'm still getting over the shock :faint:

But good weather is good weather (even when it occurs against all the odds), and I made a return trip to Rottingdean. This time the tide was out, and this time I also kept an eye on when it was likely to come in 😉 The shore was crowded with people but, as ever, if you head along the front to the rock pools it's easy enough to find a quiet spot. And it's the quiet spots that are the preferred haunts of the less gregarious of the sea birds.

A small flock of oystercatchers were enjoying the sun, skimming along the water's edge.
Oystercatchers

The fourth bird in the shot (top left) is a sandwich tern, once again masking it's appearance by attempting to integrate with other species. This seems to be a common trait of theirs. And it was the terns that got most of my attention. Watching them in flight was interesting. Like the oystercatchers they tend to call/whistle while in flight, but more distinctive than that is a very noticeable 'circular' wing movement. I'd not noticed this before, but it was very clear today and will help identify them at a distance in future. It's quite different from gull movements, and different again from the stiff wing-beat of the fulmars. As a rule, wing movement is one of the easier indicators of what's around if you can't get close enough to see any detail. It's just a matter of looking out for differences.

ternLooking for me?

They were in a playful mood, skimming along between rocky landing sites.
ternReady?

ternGo!

ternThe race is on!

ternBeat you, la! la! la!

There are several more shots from today and from a couple of weeks ago in the Sandwich Terns album.

And just because… here's a photo of the bold vixen from last night.

Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens and UV filter, except the fox which was taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM.

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This Post Has 14 Comments

  1. RobinL

    1 Sep 2009

    Great shots!! Especially the Sandwiches!

  2. CedarFox

    1 Sep 2009

    Great shots of the tern race :up:

  3. gdare

    1 Sep 2009

    Second photo of the race :up:

  4. Words

    1 Sep 2009

    Eric, thanks!

  5. Words

    1 Sep 2009

    Darko, thanks!

  6. Words

    1 Sep 2009

    Robin, thanks. 😀

  7. SittingFox

    1 Sep 2009

    Yes, wonderful photos of the terns in flight!

  8. Ukwildlife

    1 Sep 2009

    Great snadwich tern shots, all I have are some distant ones on a post!

  9. Flying Red Fox Blog

    3 Sep 2009

    Lovelly photos, it was sort of a Northwest-Southeast split weatherwise, we had cloud and rain after 3pm lol! Had such a great holiday though and took about less than 1000 photos as i try to not wear the camera out too much hehe, still got about 800 photos! 😀

  10. hisamtrois

    6 Sep 2009

    Oh, this is a synchronism. I've just seen my friend's blog in which sea birds are flying in the northern Japan.
    And here, I find your blog.

    Your picture is great.
    And my friend, Lucian's picture is as good as you.
    Please visit him. He can read and write in English.

    http://familiarsight.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

  11. Words

    6 Sep 2009

    Hi Sam, thanks for posting. I just took a look at your friend's blog. Those are great photos!

  12. Words

    6 Sep 2009

    Neil, thanks. One of the less common local birds, but I really enjoy watching them (even if they always try to hide among another flock).

  13. Words

    6 Sep 2009

    Adele, thanks. They're such graceful birds. Great fun to watch.

  14. Words

    6 Sep 2009

    Mark, thanks! It'll take some time sorting out those photos. I've got the same problem after our break!

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