Summer Doldrums?

With plans for a 3+ month (!) trip to criss-cross the country starting next week, I was feeling both excited and worried. Excited for the obvious opportunity to see new birds, meet new people, and learn a lot about our countries birds - but also worried that I will inevitably miss some great birds on the island.
Those worries were easily forgotten about this week with the ROYAL TERN, and SANDWICH TERN. And to further put those worries behind me, we capped it off with a EURASIAN WHIMBREL yesterday (in Renews, no less), after re-finding the Sandwich Tern over 100km away!!

Some pics of the Sandwich Tern:

Lots of discussion about the sub-species ID of this bird are ongoing. My feeling is that it is an "American/Cabot's" Sandwich Tern - however some experts are leaning towards Eurasian. Hopefully will find time to do a proper write up of those thoughts.

Two Common Terns showing off their dark primaries of late summer :

And the Whimbrel... can you figure out which one it is:

The one on the right has a white belly, one of the features of Eurasian Whimbrel.

Thankfully Jared got this in flight show clearly showing the white rump. A great record for late July and a reminder that anything can happen despite the time of year - just gotta get out and look :)

Also saw this fish stuck in a pool at low tide - Atlantic Herring: