Au Revoir!

As we came out onto the beach at Littleferry we could already hear their very characteristic screeches but what was totally unexpected was....

....their numbers, gathered along sands rapidly being inundated by a fast-rising tide.

We've seen terns here often enough before, in flocks of up to, perhaps, twenty, but the gathering this afternoon numbered upward of two hundred; and they were very excited, calling to each other and then, for no apparent reason, suddenly....

....rising in a confusion of flight to take a couple of....

....ordered circuits out across the mouth of Loch Fleet - leaving behind them some rather disapproving gulls - before settling again on a slightly different stretch of sand.

They were sandwich terns and we can only think that they had gathered preparatory to starting their long migration south. It was heartening that many appeared to be young ones, lacking the distinctive black crown, so it does look as if they've had a good breeding season.

"Farewell", then, sandwich terns, or, perhaps more hopefully, "au revoir".