Terns

I've found it difficult, this year, to identify the terns which have been patrolling up and down the local beaches but after taking....

....this picture, which clearly shows a tern in the foreground with a crest, and having noted the dark beak and dark legs, I'm fairly sure that they are the same species as we saw last year, sandwich terns - more details here.

I have also done something which I should have done sooner, which is to listen to the calls which the RSPB has on its website. The sandwich tern's call is quite distinctive - listen to it here.

The sandwich tern migrates to Africa for the winter, to be found anywhere down the Atlantic coast from Morocco to South Africa. They'll all be gone by the end of October.