About Tern!

Arctic Tern : Length: 33-35cm.
Wingspan: 75-85cm
Weight: 95-120g

Orkney Islands 2023. A couple of our birdwatching highlights this year were watching the courtship of Artic Terns in the late evening sun. The male would dive for fish then take the fish and offer it to the female. Sometimes the female took the fish, sometimes she played a little hard to get but always there was such tenderness between them.

Another evening and another beach but still the splendid late evening sun. At first we thought as it was so windy that the Terns may have been flying into the wind to build up their strength. Maybe they were just having some fun. Maybe they were catching insects. We watched them for over 2 hours and when I looked at my camera I realised I had taken over 800 pictures. With such perfect lighting, on such a perfect evening, with such a perfect subject who wouldn’t.