White-winged black terns, Marton Mere

Two adult summer plumage white-winged black terns were at Marton Mere near Blackpool today. One of the birds is really stunning, the other a little less so. I'm not sure if it's a male / female thing, or perhaps one is a full adult, the other a second year, but both are really fabulous birds. This is the first time that I have seen more than a single white-winged black tern in the UK, though I did see a flock of 200 in Greece a many years ago.

I always struggle with photos of flying birds, especially terns, but fortunately these birds were following a repetitive feeding pattern so I tried manually focusing on the lilly pads and then just waited for them to come back. These were easily the best I achieved all afternoon, I'm happy with them. 

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