Unbridled agony

Any excuse to visit the Farne Islands is fine with me, so when a Bridled Tern appeared earlier this week, it seemed like a good reason to go. All week the bird has been showing well though it does disappear for hours on end on fishing trips, and although it hadn't been seen so far today we set off from Thetford for the long drive north. Five hours later we pulled into Seahouses and although the tern had been seen briefly at lunchtime, it had since flown back out to sea, we still booked on one of the boats across to Inner Farne. On landing there was a group of disconsolate looking twitchers staring forlornly at the roosting terns by the quay and it was soon obvious there was no point waiting with them so I resigned myself to missing the tern and spent the next half hour photographing the abundant Puffins and Arctic Terns on the island instead.

Puffin

Arctic Tern