B-Day plus one

And the celebrations continue!!

This image was taken at Rapid Bay, where it was cold enough to freeze brass balls.

There must have been at least 100 of these crested terns (Thalasseus bergii), all huddled together, heads under wings, hatches battened down, all trying to keep warm.

Except these two.

If you ever have the fortune to come to South Australia, and the even greater fortune to visit Second Valley, you must have dinner at Leonard's Mill. Horrendously expensive, but really really good. We have just waddled back to our room.

A very common bird on our coasts.

There are few stretches of the Australian coastline where the Crested Tern cannot be seen — it has been known as both the Bass Straits Tern and the Torres Straits Tern! They breed in colonies on small offshore islands where their nests are so densely packed together that adjacent owners can touch each other’s bills. Though the Crested Tern is usually a strictly coastal species, there are occasional records in the arid interior of Australia, where birds were possibly blown by passing tropical cyclones!