Having missed the Essex bird at Felixstowe by a matter of seconds in Nov 2016 the wait for this tarts tick was surely due to end.A first-winter Forster's tern had paid a brief visit to Lytchett Bay,Dorset on the 23rd of April before being relocated in the tern roost at Brownsea Island NT the same evening via the online Avocet Hide webcam no less!,It was almost certainly the bird from Sutton Bingham Reservoir,Somerset from a few weeks back which spent the afternoon there before flying high south.The bird was regularly being seen at Lytchett bay in the mornings so an early raid was planned.
On arrival there was no sign of the bird and the whole morning was spent around Poole harbour constantly looking for it but there was no sign.I arranged a boat trip over to Brownsea island for the afternoon and couldn't believe the lack of birders around for a saturday,clearly I was the only tart that needed it!I had never visited Brownsea island before and it was a pleasant journey over there with only one other birder present.
Arriving on Brownsea I headed straight for the tern hide in anticipation that the bird would fly in during my three hour stay as it hadn't been reported all day.After a twenty minute wait in the hide the Forster's tern flew in and just sat there preening with the Sandwich tern's,I couldn't believe it!The bird showed well for a good ten minutes and then flew out again to Poole harbour,at last I had seen it!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.