Tern Crazy

     Hi everyone. Happy weekend. Hope yours is going well. At my house we are in for a one day heat up, and then they predict (for now) that we'll be getting fall temperatures for a few days.  I'm excited for some slightly cooler temperatures for a few days and hopefully, some crisp nights for sleeping. 😀

    I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles. If you don't like birds you may not be smiling at this post. 

   Recently when we've gone out fishing in our boat, there  have been so many common terns flying around.  It makes me happy because I really enjoy watching them. They are  one of my favorite seabirds.

   In case you don't know what a tern is, here is a photo of one.  They are small and spunky (a bit like me- grin) and quite the acrobats  (not at all like me) too. 

    They also love to dive for small fish which they eat, and for some reason this summer there is so much  bait fish (like herring) in the water that the number of terns seems to be much higher than I remember it being other years. It's been such fun watching them, and even though I'm not sure my photos of them are all that fantastic, I thought I'd share some of them today.

    A couple of weeks ago we were anchored near a school of herring that the terns were going crazy for. I went up to the front of the boat to get some photos. I've been wanting to get a good diving photo of some of these birds,  and these are some of the better ones I've ever snapped.

       If the boat was steady I'd bring my "big" zoom lens, but since it's not in the nature of water to be solid (unless it's below 32 degrees F or 0 degrees C), I make do with my smaller zoom.

      When you go striped bass fishing, these flocks of birds are a sign that there might be some big fish in the water because they (the big fish)  could be there feeding on the little fish. Sadly for fishing this year there is so much bait fish that the stripers aren't biting on fishing lines. In this next photo there aren't only lots of terns but also some cormorants fishing.

    Right now the nestlings are still being fed by their parents even though they are flying around.

    Whoops, this is not a tern , but a type of seagull.

  And even though Alfred Hitchcock did not feature terns in his movie The Birds, there are so many terns around we've passed some scenes reminiscent of  that film. Luckily there has been no news of anyone being attacked by birds. 😏

  And with this last photo, I'll finish up my post. Wishing everyone a great rest of your weekend and week ahead.