{"id":1705,"date":"2010-08-28T00:08:39","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T23:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1705"},"modified":"2013-11-10T14:11:49","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T14:11:49","slug":"something-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/something-in-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Something in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->It was dry this afternoon. Really! After an overnight deluge which lingered into the morning, the clouded skies didn&#39;t so much clear as retreat. On days like this the light is usually better by the sea than inland, a little like having a giant diffuser to even out the light and reduce shadows. I headed to Rottingdean. The tide was part out (and retreating). The sea birds were active (very). <\/p>\n<p>The black-headed gulls were in something of a feeding frenzy. The dots you can see are clouds of flies. The gulls were content to sit in the water and reach up to grab a passing snack (they could hardly miss).<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/black_headed_gulls_2708103029.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>There were plenty of herring gulls about, and a smaller number of great black-backeds. No fulmars, despite their imminent appearance on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/magazine-11095490\" target=\"_blank\">UK Passport<\/a>! This is one of the juvenile herring gulls.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/gull_juvenile_2708102915.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Several cormorants skimmed the horizon. This is a juvenile which headed closer to shore.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/cormorant_2708103151.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The Red Arrows were an unexpected treat, rushing off no doubt to another air show. They were some distance out at sea, and flying in two formations. This is the higher of the two groups.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/red_arrows_2708102941.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>And then it was the turn of the terns. These small sea birds often group with black-headed gulls, and it&#39;s easy to overlook them. The first shot is a juvenile common tern.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/common_tern_2708103196.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The adult is to the right. The darker tern (left) is a juvenile displaying a darker beak and &#39;shoulder&#39; plumage.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/common_tern_2708103175.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>I nearly missed this second interloper, a sandwich tern. <br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/sandwich_tern_2708103239.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Even more difficult to spot were the ringed plovers. They all but disappear among the pebbles and I lost track of this one several times as it ran back and forth picking off insects.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/ringed_plover_2708103392.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>As for the cause of all the feeding, the final shot today is of one of the flies (species unknown to me), resting on some sea weed.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/fly_seaweed_2708103122.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The forecast for the next few days is much improved, and although it&#39;s unlikely that we&#39;ll have a blazing Bank Holiday weekend at least it looks as though it will remain dry. I certainly hope so.<br \/><span class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=Words\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" alt=\"Nature Blog Network\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/><i>Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except for the fly which was taken with the EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens with the internal flash fired.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[448],"class_list":["post-1705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-sea-birds","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}