Terned Out Bad in The End

20 June 15:08 - Probable Royal Tern - Llandudno

20 June 15:32 - MEGA African Royal Tern - Llandudno - shit me, time to make a move. After clearing the domestic side of things I was on the A5 heading to Shrewsbury to pick up Richard Vernon and go for this thing. On the way, plans changed and it ended up be the Pie Man who was going with me. Richard ended up going with Rob Stokes in a seperate car - dont ask - lifes too short.

Anyway we got there about 6.40pm to the news that it flew west about 30 mins previously. BOLLOX!!!! With not many birders about we forked out to drive along the toll road, hoping to see a group of manic listers somewhere along, but no such luck. We got around to the west end and saw a number of Midlands birders, but none had seen the birder. After a while, and getting bored of scanning we decided to go back to the pier and look from there. After about an hour and a quarter we were starting to get a little despondent with dark clouds rolling in, and visibility starting to deteriorate. However, just as I was about to fold up the scope and do a 95% Black Lark,  there was a call from a group of birders about 10m away from us that they had it!!! Flying high over the pier heading west. After a frantic few seconds we got on it in the bins and scope and had it for about a minute and a half before it was lost to view. Now lets be clear, views were not good, it was starting to fly away from us, however it was possible to detect a large tern with a big chunky bill, and dark primary tips. But no bloody orange bill!!!! Ah well, we had seen it and what else could it be? Royal Tern OML 388!!!!

Royal Tern, Llandudno Sat 20th June: Flying over the pier. Spot the orange bill? No, neither did I.

We moved over to the west side and hoped that it would show around here, but after about an hour it was obvious it had done one. So off home we went, and I felt quite lucky (guilty?) thinking how relatively easy it had been compared to the double dip of some listers. Oh well tough shit and all that!!

Little Bleeder in Somerset

Well after returning back from Turkey black as soot, I was much relived that I had not missed many megas, Oriental Pratincole being the only regrettable incident. I was pleased that the Little Bittern was still in Somerset, so I decided to go down on Sunday 14th with Richard V. I had a lie in, as I was still a bit jetlagged, and we finally left Lichfield about 4am, getting on site for 6am. Within about 10 minutes on the reserve we heard it calling, but with the fog (different fog to listing police) curtailing visibility to about 100 metres we were going to struggle to see it. We met up with one or two others and did a loop around where we thought it was calling, but again no luck, so we went back up to the old railway line and staked it out from there. After a while it was claimed in flight by a dubious couple of birders, flying left but we just could not get on it. However, I must say that it did not call again after that.

We decided to walk further down the railway line talking to several birders around the watchpoint area, some whom saw it at 4.45am - that'll teach us for having a lie in. By now the fog had lifted and we have good views of several Bitterns flying over, but naturally no sign of the Purple Heron. Time was pushing on and we wanted to be back home by early lunchtime, so at about 8.30am we decided on one last gasp, and go to where it was seen at 4.45am. No sooner had we got there, then it flew out of the reedbed from left to right at about 40 metres. Bloody good views and it really went down to the wire as we thought we would go home empty handed. 387 BOU thank you very much.

The way back to the car was interesting as there was a family to 2 Mute SWans and 4 cygnets on the path, which took about 20 minutes to negotiate around, which did not help the timekeeping plans. Oh, well all in all a successful morning, and off home we went.