Preening Pretty

Caspian Tern, Hydroprogne caspia

Lovely surprise down at the ornamental lakes on the foreshore today. A Capsian Tern taking a bath in the lake! Unfortunately he finished up before I could get close enough for a some bathing shots, instead he flew onto the lake's edge and proceeded to preen for a lengthy period of time. Too many shots to choose from!

With probably 100 photos taken I headed home but was distracted by the little corella's getting up to their typical parrot antics - lots of rolling around on their backs, legs in the air, wings going every which way ... another 50 or so shots later I called it quits. I still couldn't quite go past the elegant tern preening himself.

The ornamental lakes are continuously surprising me lately. Last week there was a male great crested grebe (he's actually still there), yesterday two musk ducks and today the tern... usually I have to head a bit further afield to see anything other than a gull, coot, swamp hen or black duck!

Weekend for me!! And tomorrow is 70- D - Day! I feel that maybe I shouldn't have made such a big deal about my new camera as the expectations for my shots may not increase and I don't quite know if my skills will be ready for that expectation!