Delayed Lunch

Was expecting to knock off work around 1230 as usual-until I glanced at the pager and read Black Tern Fairlands Valley 1100 am at least. Managed to get out at 1130 and called in-it was still showing, along with a circling Red Kite,  so went home and grabbed the camera.
Spent the next hour or so with a couple of local birders, and various passers by explaining what the bird was and why we were so interested.
Had a lot of trouble with the af on the 300mm lens and 1.7 converter as I have not had time to try various focus settings to optimise for birds in flight. As the Tern was quite small in the finder, I usually ended up focussing on the trees opposite. In fact some of the best images were manual focus-the lens was stopped down to about f10 and with an iso of 3200 the shutter speed was kept very high.

 First one for me in  Stevenage, and with the recent Little Gull and Barwit, a nice run for me in Herts.
Eventually got home at 1330, very hungry and thirsty and with a nasty bout of hay-fever starting up, but it was worth it.