Weevers and Roseate's

Jersey Tiger

 A quick look at The Patch this morning revealed no change to yesterday, with a Little Gull, a juvenile Arctic Tern among the usual Terns and Gulls.
A plod around The Desert found 7 Willow Warblers, 2 Blackcap, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 7 Common Whitethroat, 3 Yellow wagtails, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 1 Whinchat, 3 Sparrowhawks and 3 Green Woodpeckers. At the obs a Jersey tiger (first for the obs) was released. The ARC was very disappointing with just 2 common Sandpipers and 2 Dunlin, I could not even find any Garganey.

Jersey Tiger on release

 I went to the fishing boats where I was joined by CT and BH. Lots of Common and Sandwich Terns off shore along with a few Gannets and 4 Sanderling flew west.
The tide was exceptionally high and some small fish were being washed ashore. I picked up the first one and put back in the sea, a few minutes later another was washed ashore, I bent down to pick it up and yelped in excruciating pain the like of which I have never experienced before. Blood was literally fountaining from my thumb as I hopped around uttering expletives not knowing what to do, but slowly realising that the fish was a Weever. My thumb felt as if it would burst as did my finger tips. Even now 7 hours later my thumb is very painful.(I'm probably just a wimp)
While I was leaping around DW turned up and started to photograph the fish and its deadly stinging fin. As he was getting a close up there was a different call from the terns. DW immediately called Roseate Tern as an adult and juvenile were literally overhead then flew west fortunately they came back along the shoreline and made several passes allowing us to get some shots of them. Some compensation for the pain I was in.

Ad. breeding Roseate Tern

Juv. Roseate Tern

Juv. Roseate Tern

Ad breeding Roseate Tern

Ad. Breeding Roseate Tern

Juv. Roseate Tern

Juv. Roseate Tern