First visit to Gronant and to see the Little Terns

A rare moment of sunshine and 20 degrees on forecast, too good an opportunity to miss so it was off to Gronant in North Wales as a birder friend had told me about the Little Terns and one of the most important breeding colonies.    We arrived at 9am walking from Shore Road car park down to the coastal area which has a protected, fenced off area with monitoring by volunteers.   A lovely walk along easy pathways bordered by tall coastal grasses, reeds and sand dunes with a small hut where we found the volunteers and little bird hide overlooking the nesting areas (now mostly empty as many chicks are now fledged).    We walked along the beach being mindful not to disturb any of the tern chicks which would still be being fed by their parents;   although some photos look close, we were quite some distance from the chicks and used the 500mm reach lens cropping each photo very hard but maintaining reasonable detail (something I love when using CRAW ! ) 

Without further ado,  meet the Little Terns and their chicks along with a few other species.      

large expanse of sand and shingle which the birds use;  fenced off dedicated nesting areas were closer to the mainland on the right, just out of view

The little bird hide ..... only one opening window so was pretty warm inside on a 20 degree day !  

Little Terns like other long distance migrant birds are pretty nippy in flight so it took me a while to get any photos of them. !!    

This one had found a sand eel ....... 

and here are the very cute looking chicks ...........     according to my expert pal,    they are the fastest fledging species in the world. !!    young are able to fly at just 14 days old.  

Only downside is that they leave the protected area at just 9 or 10 days old and can become vulnerable to predation by Kestrels, Foxes, Stoats, etc.,     

you might be able to detect that these chicks have been ringed,  important as data which can be collected from their west African wintering grounds can provide vital information 

a little group of three which have left the safe compounds and now out on the exposed beach area;    not great photo as still taken from distance so as not to spook the chicks into flight or their parents monitoring them from above

Right,  that's about enough photos for you to be going on with.      I will return later with photos of other species we saw of Ringed Plover, Stonechat, Gatekeeper butterfly, Common Darter dragonfly and what I think is a Skylark ?