Checking out the Common tern colony

Common terns are one of my favorite subjects during the summer months here in Sweden. They are an agile and graceful flier and a photo subject that is really hard to work with.

This Thursday I drove to the Common tern colony in the archipelago to check the status and to see if there were new life in the colony. I have pondering about this for some time, but this week was my first visit too the colony this season.

I also pondered about checking my Osprey dam from last year as I had seen reports of a White-winged tern from that area. Now I didn´t do it this time, but I will surely check that area soon.

When I arrived at the Common tern, and Black-headed gull, colony I saw that they had moved it slightly further out on the rocks this year. I took up my seat at the water’s edge trying not to disturbed the colony and once I got seated they relaxed. This clearly told me that no eggs have hatched yet as that would have meant I had to use my bag hide to disappear from the watchful eyes of the birds.

The evening wasn´t action packed, but I got lucky to record an acrobatic display between to Common terns, you can find those pictures in the gallery, so I didn´t stay for long as the main objective was to check the status on the colony.

This is one of the pictures I came home with from the Common tern colony.

I prefer not to have the sky as a background when I photo Common terns as I mostly find those pictures to be dull and not to my liking. Still you have to take the opportunities you get as when I got the acrobatic display between two Common terns that you will see in the gallery below.

I personally want a little color in my picture and in this I have used the green foliage from a rock that isn´t used by the colony. I think colors complement the Common tern nicely as you see in this picture.

I hope you find my pictures from this year’s first outing with the Common tern colony to be to your liking. I will publish more material during the weeks to come when I revisit the colony, but for now this gallery will have to do.