Oscar writes: This was taken on the Isle of May last Summer. I’d never seen or photographed these birds before, so spent most of the day with them.
Nikon D300s, Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR.
Mark writes: Quite by chance, I saw an Arctic Tern yesterday evening at Stanwick Lakes. Although it’s often a bit of an identification challenge to distinguish between Arctic (which are somewhat unusual visitors) and Common Terns (which are summer-long breeding visitors) at inland sites there are lots of ways of telling them apart. Any tern heading at full pelt, like an arrow, along the Nene Valley is more likely to be an Arctic than a Common (and the same applies to flocks of birds).
But a close view on the breeding grounds, like this image, shows what a wonderful bird is the Arctic Tern – nothing like as gorgeous as a Roseate, but far superior to a Common!
If you walk into a breeding colony of terns then the two species are easy to distinguish – both mob you, shout at you, and dive at you, and both rap you painfully on the head, but it is the Arctics that draw blood.
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