Presumed dead or worse !!!
17th August 2022
After attempting to photograph a couple of Brown Hares, which were obligingly sitting in a field happily munching away on grass, not a stones throw from a dried out ditch which could have been used to close the gap and provide frame filling shots. The fly in the ointment was a huge slab of beef and I mean huge. To venture into his domain, the field could have seen either one of us breaking the land speed record should the bull have taken offence at using his field.
Despite my assurances to Ian that it should be easy to do he deferred or possibly declined outright to go into the field and on the basis of him not going into the field, I felt that to do it myself and get full frame Brown Hare shots would not be the charitable thing to do, and on that basis we collectively decided to move on to what we had come to see.
We where not to be disappointed, the sun shone intermittently and we made our way to the beach going our separate ways to find a suitable spot to photograph from.
Lying on the beach I guess could be described as nothing short of therapeutic - it was certainly not unpleasant, the day was warm and as the previous days had also been warm, the pebble beach had retained the warmth and the stones for their most part moulded to the body like siting or lying on a giant bean bag. All across the beach adult and juvenile Common and Arctic terns sat and fluttered about, the juveniles calling to be fed and the parent birds one bird bringing in small amounts of food, the other showing the juveniles larger items of food to encourage it to fly to get the food.
I was briefly aware of footsteps not too distant and then a voice from the ridge line of the shingle ridge caught my attention and looking up to the ridge line I glanced at a snake like procession of brightly dressed individuals all carrying rucksacks and walking one behind another. It was one of the individuals in this line that said “no he is ok, he has a camera” - not believing or thinking for a moment I could be misconstrued as anything but ok I just continued watching and photographing the Arctic Terns sat in front of me. Later when I met Ian I said did you see the huge crowd of walkers - he then told me that at some point three of them had fallen out of line and started making their towards me, presumably to check that the tide had not just washed me up or that I had fallen on the rocks or similar !
At least no-one had called the air ambulance and photography resumed uninterrupted.
Although having lain on those stones on and off for a few hours, by the time I got home the bruises around my ribs were already a deep purple and lasted for several days !
Having learnt the lesson of having stitches in my knee and mentioning them once to the lads, they did not let me forget for what seemed a lifetime, I decided not to mention them !!! too often !
The juvenile terms whether they be Arctic, Common or the occasional Sandwich tern spend most of their time on the beach looking skyward, beaks wide open waiting for food.
These juveniles are quite accomplished flyers, but like petulant teenagers glued to a sofa, they prefer to sit and cajole their parents, who over the previous months have flown relentlessly backwards and forwards from the lagoon islands out to sea, in all weathers to find food for them.
Nonetheless they are relentless in their efforts to keep the adult birds feeding them.
Avian flu is currently sweeping through the U.K., with severe impacts in some of the bird colonies on the east coast and in Scotland.
Fortunately at this colony there where no obvious signs of the disease, and aside from the local Peregrine picking off birds a good number of birds have been recorded.
Many of the juvenile birds will make their way south to enjoy a second summer in one year at the Antarctic.
In the meantime they will feed up, practice their flying skills, until the beaches empty of terns and the autumn waders move in.
A fair bit of sleeping on the warm stones goes on
Until next year, when hopefully many of these juvenile birds will return.
Despite my assurances to Ian that it should be easy to do he deferred or possibly declined outright to go into the field and on the basis of him not going into the field, I felt that to do it myself and get full frame Brown Hare shots would not be the charitable thing to do, and on that basis we collectively decided to move on to what we had come to see.
We where not to be disappointed, the sun shone intermittently and we made our way to the beach going our separate ways to find a suitable spot to photograph from.
Lying on the beach I guess could be described as nothing short of therapeutic - it was certainly not unpleasant, the day was warm and as the previous days had also been warm, the pebble beach had retained the warmth and the stones for their most part moulded to the body like siting or lying on a giant bean bag. All across the beach adult and juvenile Common and Arctic terns sat and fluttered about, the juveniles calling to be fed and the parent birds one bird bringing in small amounts of food, the other showing the juveniles larger items of food to encourage it to fly to get the food.
I was briefly aware of footsteps not too distant and then a voice from the ridge line of the shingle ridge caught my attention and looking up to the ridge line I glanced at a snake like procession of brightly dressed individuals all carrying rucksacks and walking one behind another. It was one of the individuals in this line that said “no he is ok, he has a camera” - not believing or thinking for a moment I could be misconstrued as anything but ok I just continued watching and photographing the Arctic Terns sat in front of me. Later when I met Ian I said did you see the huge crowd of walkers - he then told me that at some point three of them had fallen out of line and started making their towards me, presumably to check that the tide had not just washed me up or that I had fallen on the rocks or similar !
At least no-one had called the air ambulance and photography resumed uninterrupted.
Although having lain on those stones on and off for a few hours, by the time I got home the bruises around my ribs were already a deep purple and lasted for several days !
Having learnt the lesson of having stitches in my knee and mentioning them once to the lads, they did not let me forget for what seemed a lifetime, I decided not to mention them !!! too often !
The juvenile terms whether they be Arctic, Common or the occasional Sandwich tern spend most of their time on the beach looking skyward, beaks wide open waiting for food.
These juveniles are quite accomplished flyers, but like petulant teenagers glued to a sofa, they prefer to sit and cajole their parents, who over the previous months have flown relentlessly backwards and forwards from the lagoon islands out to sea, in all weathers to find food for them.
Nonetheless they are relentless in their efforts to keep the adult birds feeding them.
Avian flu is currently sweeping through the U.K., with severe impacts in some of the bird colonies on the east coast and in Scotland.
Fortunately at this colony there where no obvious signs of the disease, and aside from the local Peregrine picking off birds a good number of birds have been recorded.
Many of the juvenile birds will make their way south to enjoy a second summer in one year at the Antarctic.
In the meantime they will feed up, practice their flying skills, until the beaches empty of terns and the autumn waders move in.
A fair bit of sleeping on the warm stones goes on
Until next year, when hopefully many of these juvenile birds will return.
Comments
By Ian: Very good article to go with your images By Eric: Have been to that reserve a few times to watch the terns - great photos By Eric: Have been to that reserve a few times to watch the terns - great photos