Bird project 26 - Sandwich tern & rock pipit

26/101.
Sterna (syn. Thalasseus) sandvicensis Sandwich tern

Location: Rossall beach, Fleetwood, Lancashire.
Conditions: Mild, light breeze, mostly cloudy; a couple of hours after high tide.
Photograph quality: 1-2.

Comments: I wasn't expecting to see this species yesterday, but I was not surprised either. They've been sighted in numbers around the coast here quite a lot in the last couple of weeks - habitually roosting at Knott End just round the coast, and even a few a mile or two south of Blackpool town centre.

I was actually stalking another bird - a tiny wader, that is probably a dunlin (I haven't yet identified it), when I realised immediately in front of my was a pair of terns on the sand, alongside a slightly larger and chunkier black-headed gull. I knew straight away it was a sandwich tern - they're pretty distinctive (only common and Arctic terns are otherwise found round here, and they look quite different). These birds winter in Africa, so I was glad to catch them before they leave.

One was an autumn plumage adult (not the paler forehead - it would be black in the breeding season), the other a juvenile. The latter bird was very noisily begging for food, adopting a posture reminiscent of gulls - hunched, the beak upturned and open. The adult seemed oblivious. They flew off a few metres along the beach every so often, but I was able to get quite close. See also my best shots here and here.

27/101.
Anthus petrosus Rock pipit

Location: Sea defences at Rossall Point, Fleetwood.
Conditions: Late afternoon, cloudy, mild, light breeze.
Photograph quality: 1.

Comments: This is a little less certain than my previous species. This little bird landed on a concrete buttress just by me, and didn't mind me creeping closer to photograph it. But its identity was only established on iSpot, a website where you can post wildlife sightings for identification. Two people agree it is a rock, not meadow pipit, but I am not able to say for sure myself - it seems to be a juvenile, given its yellowish, dull appearance, and these species are hard to separate at the best of times.

However, a rock pipit was seen by birdwatchers there on the same day, although it was outnumbered 8-1 by meadow pipits, and it was in the right habitat, so I am including it here.