?sandwich tern - Île d'Oléron (1 Viewer)

[marnixR]

the attached pictures were taken in the first week of September near Pointe des 3 Pierres, Île d'Oléron
a bit too far for my box-and-shoot camera to make much detail out, but i thought these were sandwich terns - can any confirm or refute ?

 

[lou salomon]

yes they are (apart from the ~6 Common Terns in the 2nd pic).

 

[marnixR]

thanks for pointing the commons out - I wasn't sure whether they might have been immature sandwich terns, the colour of the bill not always obvious in my less than sharp images

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,

do you have more pictures?

I find it hard to rule out Roseate Tern for the two preening birds on the right of the Tern group.
The real black and narrow edge to the primaries seems good for this and the appearant long bill of the other one might also mean that its another candidate for a Roseate Tern?

 

[marnixR]

sorry, but no - all other pictures are of terns in flight, and their quality is even worse than what I've posted here