One of the things I learned from evidence led in a planning inquiry I was involved in many many moons ago was that the common tern is a highly adaptable bird: disturb its nesting colony and it will just move somewhere else and establish another one. I've lived in Eagleton for 23 years and the terns have rarely flown over my house on the way from the feeding grounds to the nesting site. This year they have been flying non-stop for several months over the house.
Terns fly very quickly and with a flight that is either extremely graceful (with the wind and with nothing in their beak) or extremely jerkily (against the wind and with a fish in their beak for the young). Either way they are a difficult bird to photograph when they are in flight. Anyway in between the rain I've managed a few shots:
The distance between the possible breeding sites and the feeding grounds is between one and one and a half miles:
I have no idea how many flights a day each tern flies but several months from 0400 'till 2100 one is talking of a great many miles.
