Black Tern

We went over to Shoreham today, to see the juvenile Black Terns, that have been feeding around the harbour for the past few days. We parked up at the Lifeboat station and had great hopes of getting pictures of them sitting on the rails around the station.

As we arrived there were a number of Sandwich Terns feeding over the water but no sign of the target birds. Fortunately after a short wait Dave picked them up approaching from the other side of the harbour.

Black Tern

They are a great bird to see flying. Very different from the Sandwich Terns, mostly low over the water and very elegant, making the Sandwich Terns look rather clumsy alongside them.

We watched them for about an hour but in that time they did not appear to land anywhere. The best we could manage, were a few all to distant flybys. 

Black Tern

One of the Sandwich Terns was a bit more obliging coming into land on the spot we had reserved for the Black Terns.

Sandwich Tern

Earlier that day after the rain had cleared we had spent some time around Pagham Harbour looking for migrants. It seemed like ideal conditions, a clear night with heavy early morning rain, it looked a certainty for a fall of migrants waiting to cross the channel.

Once again it was a disappointment. There were a few birds around, Spotted Flycatchers, Yellow Wagtails and a single Redstart but numbers were low and I have still failed to see a lot of the usual autumn migrants. Even worse, decent opportunities for photographs seem to have dried up this year.

Spotted Flycatcher

Willow Warbler 

Things must improve soon!