CR Common Tern

2nd July - post breeding adult waders are on the move.  July is a good month for Black-tailed Godwit at the pit, which I still need for the year, but not to be this morning.  A Green Sandpiper was new in as was a juvenile Little Ringed Plover, which was with 3 further adults - this might well be a locally bred bird, but it would be nice to see a few more juvs.  A pair of Oystercatchers flew in and copulated, so there might yet be more success here as well.  The Lapwing flock seems to be building each day and today there were 203 birds present, though they looked to be almost all adults.

Quite a few of the Common Terns that rest on the spit have BTO type rings on.  On Sunday afternoon I noted 4 birds, 2 with rings on their left legs and 2 with rings on their right.  2 of these are an obvious pair as well.  Common Terns have been rung at this site and other local sites for many years, but these have also had a split colour ring on.  It is possible that this colour ring might have come off, or maybe they never had one in the first place - who knows.  With my optics, it is impossible to read the metal ring code to confirm.  However, Sunday also produced a Common Tern with a split colour ring on its right leg and a metal BTO type on its left.  The problem with this bird was that the colour ring was so faded, it was extremely difficult to ascertain the correct colours.  I took a few snaps and blew them right up to see if that helped and it looks to be yellow below, which would make it a bird rung at this site as a chick.  The upper colour looks to have been a dark one, maybe blue or green.  If it is dark green, it matches the scheme used in 2007 - if it's blue I'm not sure.  The metal ring also looks to have come open, as you can see the inside of the leg all the way down - which is not good!

Still no YLGs yet in with the LWHG flock, but I'm sure they will start to come over the next week or so, while the BHG flock is also building, with 30+ birds - they don't breed here.  A juvenile was noted on Sunday, but not today and there have been no CR birds to scrutinise as yet.