Two Terns and thousands of small fry

Today i managed to limp my way all the way from the cut to the center and back again, so Im feeling quite pleased with myself !! My first comment is about the fish near the out flow towards Charlie's hide there were literally thousands and thousands of them some two inches long others 5 and 6 inches long jumping and splashing in whole shoals as well as individually.Every now and then a fish turned sideways and and its side flashed silver it was like a fancy light show with flashes going off as fish turned in the light. Fantastic display even though Ive no idea as to what these fish are perch? Roach? something like that. However one concerning point was that a lot of fish seemed to be effected by a white fungus which made them a lot easier to spot. When i say a lot it is relative to the huge numbers I was observing I don't know whether the management will be interested in this or not but diseased fish could have a massive impact on our birds. While watching the fish i was delighted to have two terns -i think they were common terns come and catch fish about ten meters in front of us. They repeated this several times -diving into the milling shoals and coming up with a shiny fish-though to be honest it would have been hard to miss one!! Other highlights included 6 very settled looking avocets out on the islands visible from the Bob Dickens hide-I couldnt see the 16 recently reported though -What are the platforms by the islands for? Terns? I only saw gulls using them. We saw a female kingfisher with clear brood patch taking a fish at the Kingfisher hide and another buzzing like a bright blue humming bird up the bank of the River Aire. I saw my first blackcaps of the year, one came to tick and sing for us in the Verandah hide (does it have a name?) Another first today was to hear the wonderful bubbling call of a curlew as it flew high over the reserve- reminded me of the years spent on the moors of Halifax. Ive never heard this at Fairburn before. Redwolf