Black Tern Stays

14th September - well despite it looking decidedly unsettled on arrival on Wednesday, the juvenile Black Tern is still present for its 4th day this morning.  On Thursday, it was settling occasionally on a piece of wood, so I grabbed this record:

I narrowly missed a passing Ruff on Thursday that was seen late morning but was not there at 12:30pm - a record shot shows what looks like a nice moulting adult male, posted here. The only other waders at the moment are a long staying Common Sand and the odd Snipe.

This morning, the 3 regular Common Terns, an adult and 2 juvs that have been present on and off for a couple of weeks were flying around with the Black Tern.  Also on the spit was a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull - a different individual to the one seen a few times a week or so ago.

Amongst other features, the many moulted scaps and dark centred pale fringed tertials help to ID this bird.

There were lots of Swallows and House Martins low over the lake too in the mizzly conditions, probably 3-400 birds equally mixed, but very few Sand Martins.  I also took another shot of the regular Black Swan family - the juvenile now pretty well full grown.