The terns are back

The terns are back. Up till now the island has been noisy and full of birds but something has been missing until this morning when I step out of my front door and immediately heard the screeching rattle of the terns. They were already a week later than last year so I had been wondering when they would arrive, the north winds have held them up somewhere until now. There are only 10 today but numbers will gradually build up hopefully and  now that they are here the island somehow seems more complete. It does mean the start of the stress of watching them struggle to breed but at least this year they have a fine selection of tern terraces beautifully built by various volunteers in April. Let us hope that this does the trick and they have a successful year. Now some gratuitous tern shots from previous years.