Christine's walking & birds blog

At Stornoway I scanned the harbour area but could see no common terns. Back on the boat it was now quite cold, but Greger went down and bought us both ice-creams - Magnum for him, strawberry Cornetto for me. And very nice they were too!

Somewhere in the Minch, leaning over the side on the upper deck, I spotted four or five tiny birds ahead. Clearly petrels going by their size, they remain unidentified, although I suppose they're most likely to be storm petrels. I clicked away blindly in their general direction, but failed to get anything but a rubbish record shot; still, at least I got the camera onto them this time. 

Distracted by trying to relocate them, I probably missed a few shearwaters; but we did manage to identify one Manx.

A notable feature today was the number of large gatherings of kittiwakes on the sea, including juveniles; gannets, fulmars, and great skuas were also seen. All too soon we were gliding back up Loch Broom, and as we approached the quayside three terns were spotted on a buoy close to West Shore.

The two that are in full view are juveniles, while the partly hidden one looks as though it's more likely to be an adult; and having consulted my bird books:  The short but not stubbily-short legs, the amount of both black and white around the eye, and the strong dark mark on the wing (secondary coverts apparently) all point to these being common terns. The sighting was a nice surprise at the end of the trip, and compensation for not seeing any terns in Stornoway.