This tern was hunting over the shallow water of an inlet on Styrsö yesterday.
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I watched this bird for some time, trying to photograph it. It was dogged by a seagull that was clearly just waiting for the opportunity to snatch away whatever the tern might catch. Then the tern got fed up and turned on the gull.
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I’m fairly sure it is an Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), one of the most amazing long-distance fliers. They nest around the Arctic – including Scandinavia – in the summer, but migrate to the Antarctic in order to enjoy the summer sun of the southern hemisphere while the rest of us struggle through the northern hemispere’s midwinter dark. They are pretty smart birds.