Storm Caroline

[rick]

I suspect I wasn't the only person to see the sunrise either
There was a kingfisher down by the boathouse bridge last week, and I did have my camera with a 400mm lens on but at that distance it would have still come out as a few neon blue pixels even though it was as unmissable as fireworks!
Did have lots of fun trying to get a focused shot of the gulls swooping over the iron bridge by the weir.

... what do you call those small gulls on the river? Very common - white with, I think, a dark spot on the side of their head?
When it was snowing heavily they were up their as a flock, doing loops like swifts after insects. It looked like they were just having a laugh catching snowflakes!

 

[valeriebutterley]

Lovely, Terns possibly?

 

[rick]

Ahhh! Turns!
Arctic ones maybe - so that's why they like the snow
but unfortunately no. They seem to be like a turn but without the black cap.
They have the appearance of a small gull, about the size of a pigeon, pale grey wings and a black spot or smudge on the side of their head just behind the eye. Saw them again this morning - they always seen to be by the weir.
Calling them gulls might be misleading, maybe?

 

[Hen-Gen]

Artic Terns should be enjoying the perpetual daylight of the southern oceans at this time of year. Perhaps Black Headed Gulls who are small and who lose their black heads out of the breeding season?

 

[rick]

Yes, bingo. Thanks Hen-Gen (our local ones have white tails but all the rest is the same)