Ellesmere - Tern fest

Wind and rain conspired to create conditions ideal for Tern passage today! Getting out and about, Tom Lowe found six Black Terns at The Mere, Ellesmere and after arriving mid afternoon, I managed to 'up' the count to nine! Thanks to John Martin for helping with ID of some of these, never easy!!

Here's a few pics of Black Terns, all except one juv were patchy adults taken at distance 100- 200m!

Here's the juv plus a couple of adults...

Teaming up with a couple of adult Common Terns...

A 1w Arctic joining in the fun...

Here's five Black Terns plus the juv Arctic...

Oh and a juv Common Tern!

A shame they didn't come closer but still a stunning spectacle!

Venus Pool - Common Tern

The conditions look good for a Wader or Tern passing through today and it was the latter which complied with brief views in the pouring rain!

Just a couple of worthwhile pics (albeit awful quality!) to seal the species and with a helping hand from John Martin it's a Common Tern. The primary wedge on the upperwing, diffuse trailing edge to the underwing and bill which is variable...

Priorslee Lake - Common Tern

John Reeves kick started his day with a Common Tern at Priorslee Lake. Better still, it was still there late morning! And pretty obliging as it ranged over the whole lake for an hour or so...

Here's a selection of pics in chronological order. What a welcoming fly by! It's an adult already  in winter plumage and the first image shows the dark carpal bar and secondaries, dark bill and white forehead...

Head on after a plunge. loooong legs!

In mid-dive showing grey wash to the rump and lost tail streamers...

Three images catching the downbeat nicely!

And saving a close pass as a finale!

These were the last two (worthwhile) pics...

Just before 1.00, it then started climbing and circling, eventually heading south and lost to view!

On This Day (May 22nd)... 2010 Anglesey

One of my then 'annual trips to Anglesey a decade ago....

I always try and get a day on Anglesey during May to check out the popular sites, celebrate some overdue obligatory year ticks and generally have a good day’s birding! Yvonne thought it would be a good day out too…..

A late decision to take in ‘Worlds End’ got the day rolling with a good number of Black Grouse eventually on view, somewhat distant but the highlight – a group of nine males lekking made good viewing through the scopes.

First stop on Anglesey was Fedw Fawr – I don’t get lost anymore in this neck of the woods as I’ve invested in a new means of transport and travel in by sea!!






Not sure whether the two Black Guillemot seen here were impressed by this though……








South Stack was hard work, seabird numbers appeared ‘down’ to me and the higher crevices normally holding good numbers of Kittiwake and Fulmar were quite barren! Just two Puffin were found after a lot of seacrching from the lighthouse steps. The lower cliffs held 100's of Guillemot and Razorbill as ever though with a few Fulmar and Kittiwake on the wing plus Gannets out to see. Given the calm conditions, we didn’t expect to see Manxies and this proved to be the case! Chough put in a late appearance, just as we were beginning to wonder where they were hiding!!

We got to Cemlyn at about 2.00, it was stiff with Terns and at least 800 Sandwich Terns have been counted in with up to a hundred Arctic Tern and Common Tern. The blue skies and direct sun meant that Terns flying in from the sea gave the only possible angle for photography! Never mind, we eventually coped with the tricky light – here’s all three species….

Sandwich Tern, plenty of fish in the sea, small or large.....










Arctic Tern....










Common Tern.....










The time seemed to slip away like crazy and we suddenly realised at 6.00 that we still had a bit more travelling, back in North Wales, to do to catch up with one more species….. Little Tern at Gronant!

They were doing quite nicely too! A huge area of the beach has been roped off and 300 odd Little Terns were busy pairing up, dangling fish for all they were worth, trying to attract a partner! With the light fading, one or two record flight shots…..








A spat with the local Ringed Plovers provided useful comparison - just hown small Little Terns are!






Here's one very obliging Ringed Plover……






It certainly had terned out nice....

On this day (May 10th) 2016 - Perfect passage

A big post from VP Memory Lane - the weather appalling, the birds superb!!


The light was dire, the weather apalling but amongst other good birds, the drake Garganey was astill present - went almost unnoticed today!

The resident male Shelduck has serious 'anger management' issues and whilst it spends most hours of the day chasing almost everything, the Garganey seems to be the 'little guy' he picks on!

A moment for a breather in front of me!

 Whoops here he comes again!!

Shutter speed in short supply but hey that wind blur looks dynamic - this is ART!

Back to the waders next.....

Easterly winds, low cloud and drizzle - the omens which looked good at least produced some excitement! Firstly in the form of a Sanderling :-)

Settled at first and busily feeding up as they do.....

Another dash across the mud....

Constantly being moved about by the territorial Little Ringed Plovers!

Will I be safe on the nearest island?

For a moment anyway!

This was the pick of the waders but there's more to come.....

A Redshank had been downed by the rain and present all morning. With so many other things (birds) going on, I eventually caught up with it from the North hide.....

It wasn't doing much!

But eventually ventured into deeper water.....

Striding around the margins....

Eventually giving a nice show of those smart legs!

Caught in mid stride....

What else is showing well today?


It was all happening today, it was almost as if the Sanderling got kicked into touch as my attention turned to the single Common Tern which had been present since arrival!

You can't have it all and good Tern days are invariably dank and drizzly....

But watching Terns jink and jive as they catch insects in flight is magic (especially when you never quite know if you'll see them here from one year to the next!)

And before long, I realised there was company arriving!

Three more Common Terns......

Imagine my excitement when after another 30 minutes, it literally rained a new flock of newcomers!

I couldn't get them all in the frame but repeated counts revealed the new (much larger) group numbered 22 more Common Terns

Not enough room on this bit of prime Tern real estate!

And occasionally they would land and spread out on the main island.....

Occasionally flying in and out....

One Tern (probably the original one for the day) kept flying but we were now witnessing the amazing sight of 25 Terns on the deck.

All good things have to come to an end of course and something triggered (I don't think it was the Coots) their eventual departure after 90 minutes or so?

There they were (well, most of them) gone but not forgotten!!

A record count for the reserve - by a mile!!