A Common Tern in the Bay of Tafts
There’s a Tern hunting for fish at the Bay of Tafts. It’s a beautiful day and visibility is good. Amazingly there’s someone else on the same beach with me. Luckily there’s half a mile of beautiful white shell sand between us.
![Common Tern at Bay of Tafts - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Common-Tern-at-Tafts-The-Hall-of-Einar--725x408.jpg)
I assume it’s an Arctic Tern. They’re the ones which nest here still and leave nasty dents in your head if you decide to stray too near their chicks.
I take a sequence of photographs and get the one I’m after:
![Common Tern at Bay of Tafts - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Common-Tern-at-Bay-of-Tafts-The-Hall-of-Einar-3-484x725.jpg)
Just the tip of the beak in the water. Lovely. Here it is as a superimposed sequence of shots:
![Common Tern at Bay of Tafts - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Common-Tern-The-Hall-of-Einar--483x725.jpg)
I know, you’re thinking it’s a fluke that I got the shot with the beak just touching the water, aren’t you?
![Common Tern at Bay of Tafts - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Common-Tern-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-725x483.jpg)
It was. The best I could manage after that had the whole head in the water.
I look at the photographs and begin to have my doubts about it being an Arctic Tern. Aren’t Arctic Terns meant to have long tail-streamers and almost white see-through wings? I check our local WhatsApp group and Sandra confirms it for me. Brilliant. Then Steve comes through with the definitive guide:
![Common Tern at Bay of Tafts - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/debc9601-304d-43c3-8a24-ce5f576b8434-725x408.jpg)
A not-so common-around-here Common Tern it was. What an experience.