Osprey birders set off on their Lymington walk with a quest to see some terns. Twelve of us, including two new members, assembled in the Bath Road car park ready for our walk along the sea wall to Normandy Lagoon. The weather was a pleasantly sunny 22 degrees with a nice sea breeze. The light was excellent for our first views across the Lymington River. Our first common tern was soon spotted perching obligingly on a break water to give us all good views. Progressing along to the lagoon we had an interesting display from a juvenile oystercatcher begging for food from the parent bird. Lowering its head and calling insistently it showed us its brownish back feathers which had yet to grow into their jet black shade.

There were many black headed gulls on the nearest scrape and a Mediterranean gull was spotted amongst them through the telescope, with its white eye crescent and wing tips standing out nicely.

Male and female linnet were pointed out in the gorse lining the path. The male was particularly attractive with his breeding colours of red breast and head patches.

Two dunlin flew in giving us a good chance at close quarters to see their breeding plumage of black belly patch and rufous and brown wing feathers. A lovely sight.

We were not disappointed in our day’s quest as there was plenty of noisy tern action on the scrapes, with a mixture of common and sandwich terns and their juveniles. Sandwich terns are characterful birds and we enjoyed watching them strutting around sticking out their breasts and holding their wings slightly flexed. Shaggy black crests, dark bills and legs made them easy to identify against the common terns with their red bills and legs.

Having enjoyed a successful morning some of us retired to a local garden centre for a relaxing lunch and social chat.