Common Terns @ Loch Na Cuilice

We are fortunate to get both Arctic and Common Terns around the shoreline where we live and to be honest it is often only when looking at the still images that I could say which is which!  These images are of common terns which are distinguished by the black tip to the end of their beaks.  All the images were taken on the same day.  I was fortunate that the terns were flying towards me along the exposed seaweed before banking away and back out to sea.  This allowed their wings to catch the sun which was very high, albeit it mid afternoon.  We are spolit these days with super slow-mo replays of video footage but I still do like looking at the various forms a bird's wing takes when captured as a single image.  In these sequences on a couple of occaisions the wings were brought quite far forward to stop the forward flight.

Click on any image to see a larger version.

 

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