Image credit: David Tipling (rspb-images)
One of my favourite sights so far this summer has been the little white Common terns hovering over the lakes. These beautifully streamlined birds never fail to make me smile, and I can understand why keen birder Simon Barnes once referred to Terns as ‘Gulls that have died and gone to heaven’. I’m a big fan of Gulls, loving their cheeky, noisy and undaunted presence, so I’m torn as to whether I agree or not. But the Common terns graceful silhouette, and its mastery of flight, as they hover ballerina like over the water before diving with lethal accuracy upon a fish, seems to suggest a prettier, daintier, faster version of everything a Gull might dream of being. Even their name ‘Tern’ conjures up some of their magic, as in flight they move so quickly, almost turning through right angles in split second movements, whilst hovering in the air.
At Fen Drayton Lakes you can now see these aerial acrobats, hovering and turning above the water before diving arrow like upon an unsuspecting fish. They have recently had their chicks, and are in the process of raising these little bundles of grey and white fluff into birds strong enough to fly south before the English summer ends. Common terns are declining in numbers world wide, and the rafts on the lakes were built to encourage their breeding success, by providing a platform relatively free from predators that mimics a natural island habitat.
These rafts also make an ideal platform for visitors to view the chicks on the lakes, and watch the flickering white grace of the parent birds. They are well worth a visit before they begin their migration south.