It has been a while since we visited the East coast. The reason for this is that for the best part of the last six weeks the wind has been from the East. The result is that when the weather has not been poor light, a very cold wind has persisted. Today we visited and were not disappointed; that said it was slightly chilly.
We had hoped to encounter some Auks and Terns which would be firsts for the year. In the event, we only saw distant flocks of Razorbill, with the odd Guillemot mixed in. With the terns we did better. A few Sandwich Terns flew calling my name (Some wag in the past suggested they say Errric!). However, the day was made by one Arctic Tern.
I shuffled up to a reasonable distance taking pictures. It was clearly at ease since it was frequently wing stretch horizontally. Once it did the vertical stretch and I was hooked. It took a further half an hour before I got the picture (opposite). You need to leave a lot of picture space for those wings.
Recent storms had deposited a huge amount of kelp on the beach so it was no surprise to find waders enjoying the feast of sandhoppers and other goodies. Particularly noted was a flock of Turnstone in various states of plumage enjoying the banquet.