Common Terns and their chicks on tern rafts at Greenwich Ecology Park, London

As we are currently experiencing an unusual heatwave in the UK, I am not feeling much like wandering around in the hot sun with a heavyish camera and am, therefore, confined to barracks.  So, as I am guilty of not writing a blog for ages, I thought I would now get round to adding photographs of my new favourite birds - Common Terns - in my new favourite place - North Greenwich Ecology Park.  This is a very tiny nature reserve on the Greenwich Peninsular in London and very near to the O2 centre and the Emirates cable car that goes over the river Thames. 

I visited the park on a few occasions from the middle to end of June.  At the time there were plenty of adults and their chicks on several tern rafts that were floating in the middle of the lake.

From the bird hide that is nearest to the entrance to the park I saw this adult tern standing in front of a shelter on a small raft that was covered with pebbles.

There was another, much larger raft, with wooden edges and also with the central part covered with pebbles.  In this photograph there are two adult terns standing near the edge of the raft, with a chick walking down a sloping plank that leads to the water.

The adult birds were flying out of the park and fishing in the river Thames - bringing back small fish to feed both chicks and the adults that remained on the raft in order to look after the babies.  This tern was perched on the edge of the raft and has a poor little fish in it's beak.

The birds were constantly flying out and back in to the park.  Here an adult has just landed and has a fish in it"s beak ready to feed the chick that is standing on the pebbles in front of it.  There are 3 other hungry chicks on the left-hand side of the raft.

There was an adult tern with open beak on the 1st floor of the raft and several adults and chicks on the ground floor.

Here, the chick on the left with wide open beak was begging for food from the nearby adult.

A tern was just flying in with another fish-of-the-day while two companions were singing a duet on the lst floor of the raft.

It was more-or-less non-stop fish delivery during the time I was watching the birds.  Here, the bird with raised wings was feeding a juvenile while the other chicks were impatiently waiting for more to eat.

Yet another fish supplier has just landed on the edge of the raft.

A hard-working tern was just coming in to land, while another adult bird was sheltering in the shade under the raised part of the raft.  There were a lot of lovely white water lilies near the edge of the bank on the other side of the lake.

All the photos above were taken using a long zoom lens on my camera.  This was taken using a short zoom and shows the whole of the tern raft, plus a bird leaving the raft (just in front of the raised wooden bars) and a bird flying in (towards the top left of the photo and in front of the reeds, shrubs and grass on the far bank of the lake.

This is a view from the window of the hide with reeds in front of the window, water lilies at the edge of the lake and the tern raft in the middle of the lake.

There was a second bird hide at the other end of the lake, but there were a lot of tall reeds and flowers in front of the windows so the lake could not be seen.  However, in a gap between the foliage, I could see a tern with a fish in it's beak standing on top of the upright pole.  Obviously, there was a raft here that was much nearer to the hide, but the rest of it was out of view.

A tern stood facing forwards on the horizontal beam at the top of the raft.  I think that this is a very amusing pose!

Next time I visit the Ecology Park I expect that all the juvenile terns will have fledged and the rafts will be empty.  I must remember to definitely go back there again next year!