u/342197930

As above, any tips for identifying the different tern species?

At the beach at South Shields, there was a man equipped with his camera, binoculars, scope etc. seemed to know his stuff when it came to birds. He told me there was a pair of roseate terns, one adult and one juvenile on the rocks.

However, they all look like common terns to me 🤷‍♂️ Merlin picked up common, Arctic and sandwich terns. How do I get better at determining which is which??? I can only ever positively ID sandwich terns due to the obvious differences.

A big thank you to 2 pleasant gentlemen, who took the time to point out a pair of nesting night herons to me, while I was out on a walk.

I did my best to get an (awful) video through their scope, but didn’t want to take up too much of their time or hog their scope.

Very grateful to the chaps for pointing the night herons out, my first ever time seeing them!

Firstly, this is not intended to bully or harass. I’ve blocked any usernames to make this anonymous. Mods can feel free to delete if inappropriate.

But I’ve got to point out the blatant use of AI in photos being uploaded to this sub recently. I don’t know what people’s opinions are, but I think it takes away from the skills and craftsmanship of genuine photographers that take pride in their work.

SynthID is an advanced digital watermarking and identification technology developed by Google DeepMind to detect AI-generated content. It embeds imperceptible markers directly into images, audio, video, and text so users can verify if media was created by AI.

Been noticing it a lot more recently, and feel like it shouldn’t go unchallenged. Not sure what other people’s opinions are 🤷‍♂️

The bird looks very off, and the photo quality far too good for an old iPhone. Everything is too crisp and perfect, it just feels off.

Sanderling?

Posting for my brother. I think he’s seen a Mediterranean Gull (top most gull in video). Can anyone please confirm?

Thanks!

The small brown birds that are scared off by the geese. I’m thinking Snipe but it would be helpful if someone could wade in (pun intended) with a possible ID. Thanks!

Appears to have the black belly patch, but I don’t know if that’s apparent in any other species

Location near a small set of pools on the Northumberland Coast, roughly 200 metres inland from the beach.

Initially thought it was a buzzard, but the black wingtips underneath look harrier-esque. Any ideas?

Shot on iPhone, hence the poor quality.

Puffin
Razorbill
Kittiwake
Guillemot
Arctic tern
Black headed gull
Fulmar
Shag
Gannet