After a week off work and birding the
valley everyday in the hope of a good bird to write about had been fruitless
so, needless to say arriving at grove at 4.20am I expected much of the same.
And so it was, a Turtle Dove purring from within the Paddocks, remaining
unseen, the 3 Wigeon still from the Ramp and 4 early morning Hobbies feeding
around the Feast hide, a couple of Cetti’s Warblers burst in to song and the
first 2 of 5 Marsh Harriers put in an appearance. I made my way to Harrison’s
Drove with the Reed and Sedge Warblers making a musical pathway but nothing out
of the ordinary while at Harrison’s hide only 2 Little Egrets and a Greenshank
were of note. The next pool on held 2 more Greenshank and the last pool at the
end of the track was virtually empty, no sign of the 2 Garganey that were there
yesterday. Scanning the bushes to the west couldn’t locate a hoped for Shrike
and scanning back towards the Ramp, mainly to see if anyone else was coming up
the path, I immediately got on a Tern that was not a Common. Quickly getting
the scope on it I found I was looking at a White-winged Black Tern. I followed
as it crossed by the Ramp and started hunting over the back pool, this is when
it took my eyes of to make a few text calls to various people and when looking
up again found that there actually 2 adult summer White-winged Black Terns that
were feeding quite well but, after about 5-8 minutes they appeared to fly off
high east. I carried on my journey along Harrison’s Drove, out on to the road,
then back down Middle Drove all the time scanning bushes for Shrikes or, even
yesterdays Whinchat. Halfway down the path I looked across towards Marsh hide
and got straight back on to the 2 White-winged Black Terns feeding with a few
Black-headed Gulls. Quickly moving to the mound at the northern most end of
Middle Drove I was soon watching these bobby dazzlers as they fed over the
Water Meadows with 17 Black-heads.
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| White-winged Black Tern |
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| White-winged Black Tern |
They disappeared of towards Grove and I let
everyone Know they were back, a quick look from Marsh hide added a Wood
Sandpiper to the days list. Sue Morton joined me by Marsh hide and we made our
way to the Lampen Wall where Steve Ashton had re-located the 2 Terns and here
they gave excellent views and gave great photo opportunities. There were about
a dozen Common Terns on the lake and the male Bittern could be heard booming
behind Marsh hide. During four hours of Tern watching and gas bagging with
friends and birders a call went up of a Sandwich Tern just found by Marc Heath,
another welcome addition to the list and a much scarcer Valley bird than the
White-wingers. In fact this being only my second Sandwich Tern whereas, I’ve
seen 5 White-wings in the Valley these two being the 3rd and 4th
that I’ve found.
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| White-winged Black Tern |
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| White-winged Black Tern |
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| Sandwich Tern |
After our fill with the Terns Chiddy, Adam and I made our way
to the Water Meadows where there were 6 Redshank and a Greenshank and in
amongst Ringed Plovers that Chiddy spotted was a smart summer plumaged Temminck’s
Stint, there were 10 Ringed Plovers. Back at the Ramp, after hearing, but not
seeing, a Curlew there were another 11 Redshank. A very good day with agreat
birthday present in the Tern find.
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| Sandwich Tern |
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| Common Tern |
