Caspian Tern

I was fortunate to be in the Causeway Hide with Hazy and Mike at about 8am yesterday when the Caspian Tern appeared. I was suffering from a major migraine and sitting at the back of the hide with my eyes closed and holding my head. I wasn't really up to taking photos of anything, but when a fellow birder entered the hide and asked if we had seen the Caspian Tern, I opened an eye and paid attention. This chap had seen it the previous evening. There were only four of us in the hide at that time. I understand that numbers increased slightly as the day progressed. These photos are not my best work as I'm still getting used to the new 'rig' (see below) and other than the College Peregrines, I haven't really spent much time photographing birds in flight. Ok, that's my excuses out of the way. Here are my passable CT shots (no pun intended).

This is the DIY rifle mount, based on the one used by Tony Duckett. The engineering department at the College helped put it together and we're going to fit a rail to the side as well as a mount for the GoPro. The remote trigger is held in place by Velcro for now, but they are looking at a better fixing. There is a Manfrotto quick release plate bolted to the stock just above the remote. The Sunsniper strap gives a lot of flexibility. There is also a detachable mount for the front, which acts as an extra support and doubles up as a stand. I let the RSPB folks know that I had it before entering the reserve. It attracted a lot of interest, but all of it was positive.