Terns in Ireland

Having spent a couple of days visiting parents in south-east Ireland, I took the opportunity to visit Tacumshin and Lady's Island Lake.  There were 500 + Black-tailed Godwit most evident, very few retaining any summer plumage, so are presumably early returning non-breeders.  There was a magnificant jet black summer plumaged Spotted Redshank which was particularly pleasing.   At Lady's Island there were literally thousands of terns, and by positioning on the beach was able to catch the terns as they flew across the dunes towards the sea.  Hardly any returned in the first 3 hours of the day, so they were presumably off catching fish.  The terns were mainly Common with a small number of Arctic Terns, while the Sandwich Terns seemed to be feeding elsewhere and coming in from the north, which is from inland, but most were carrying small fish back to the lake.

I attach a few photos showing the Common Terns, which have dark-tipped red bills, a moult line in the primaries showing a dark wedge in the unmoulted primaries.  The Arctic Terns have a red bill, paler wings with no wedge, narrow dark tips to underside of flight feathers, and longer tail feathers.  The Sandwich Terns are larger, paler, and have dark bill with a yellow tip.

Common Tern

Common Tern

Common Tern

Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

There were a few Little Terns too, allowing me to brush up on tern identification, but no luck with the summering Forster's Tern nearby......