Tern number 4

23 September - I had spent the morning in west Berkshire watching a delightful juvenile Red-backed Shrike - a long overdue county tick.  Making my way back eastwards by early afternoon, I had time to pop into the patch before picking the kids up from school.  It was overcast with a hint of rain in the air and as I walked in along the west bank as usual, a tern flew right next to me up the north-west arm. I was amazed to see that it was a juvenile Arctic, my fourth species of tern here this month.  It was giving lovely close views and favoured the western side, which is the closest for easy viewing - more often than not, these terns are over the larger body of water on the eastern side.  I made my way to the viewpoint hoping that it might land on the spit so that I could get a digiscope image.  Once here, it was apparent that there were actually 2 juvenile Arctic Terns, often in close proximity, though only one bird seemed to venture up the north-west arm.  Both birds had fully black small bills, but one was slightly longer than the other.  Neither made any attempt to land, so I resorted to taking hand held shots as the first bird made sorties past the view point - not great, but you can see most features, including the plain white secondaries, lacking any dark bar that juvenile Common shows.  You can also see the translucent primaries on the far wing of the first photo.

Funnily enough, an adult and 2 juvenile Common Terns had been frequenting the lake on and off over the past fortnight and when an adult Common Tern appeared over the far side as I was leaving, I had a brief moment of doubt, but it didn't last long!

The juvenile Black Tern was still present, often flying with the Arctics and the juvenile Ringed Plover also remained.