Priorslee Lake:
Map
Looked quite promising but in fact it is pouring with rain and continued to do so for over an hour.
This first sighting: an immature Common Tern: my first terns sp. in Shropshire this year.
This is a different Common Tern – less mature with more white on the forehead but the dark carpal bar still obvious.
Not easy to photograph when raining this hard!
Another view.
Until chased off by Black-headed Gulls the Common Terns perched on the buoys: note the short-legged appearance (Arctic Terns have even shorter legs and would appear almost legless).
The more mature bird at extreme magnification: note less white on the forehead but the dark along the folded wing edge. The orange in the bill suggests this is perhaps a 1st summer bird.
And here are two birds with extensive white foreheads.
One put to flight by the arrival of a Black-headed Gull.
Another one seen off by an immature Black-headed Gull.
And only when they left did I realise that 3 birds were involved (though looking at the photos I now know there were three individuals even though I never noted three together prior to their departure).
(Ed Wilson)
