The easterly wind this week has brought numerous sightings of black terns with an incredible 140+ recorded at Heysham, near Morecambe. As they pass through on migration North a handful often pass through Leighton Moss each year. 4 Black terns were reported on Sunday afternoon with 2 reported on Wednesday morning.
Black terns arrive on passage in the spring and autumn and can occur anywhere during migration, often around freshwater lakes, gravel pits and reservoirs. May is an ideal month to look out for them on spring passage. 22-24cm and smaller than a common tern, they eat insects in summer and fish in winter. Whilst they are internationally very common they do not breed in Britain with only a few hundred in a good year migrating via the UK. The oldest bird ringed was 21 years old.
Black Tern Illustration by RSPB
The following is an account of Wednesday evening during the last hour before sunset.
Along the causeway flies thickened the air, dancing like thin black clouds. The evening was bright with the low sun setting the reeds aflame as if striking a match. They glowed an intense red together with the heads of bulrushes, fluffy and rim lit, floating among the gently swaying reed. High above, a group of 12 black-tailed godwit flew north over the causeway in formation as I stood outside the causeway hide looking skyward. Their calls were clear and colouration saturated in the evening light with white wing bars and terracotta plumage shining. Sedge warblers and reed warblers filled the reedbed with the sound of the dusk chorus. A snipe could be heard overhead and the occasional water rail called from cover. Sand martins, flying low above the causeway, were hoovering up the insects on offer as I entered the hide.
There was no-one around enjoying this fabulous evening. I had the place to myself. Sitting in the hide I checked on the great crested grebes nesting among the yellow flag iris to the left of the pool. A dark black rimmed ornate head dress tapering to chestnut orange and white of one of the adults on the nest was half visible among the cover of fresh green leaves growing out of the water. A pair of great black-backed gulls sat imposingly on the main island.
Great crested by Richard Cousens
Behind them and towards the back the sand martins, house martins and swallows congregated on mass in their hundreds. They filled the sky as they feasted on insects before nightfall, a truly incredible spectacle. A single bird was flying low over the water. Shaped like a sickle plunging with a pendulum motion, wings flashing back bright sunlight, I watched it twisting and falling with an element of grace to its flight. It was some way off to the far north of the reserve. It flew very distinctly over the same area with thin wings, dark and looking rather like a large swift. It was of course a single black tern! I made my way to lower hide hoping for a closer look.
I passed a roe deer on the path to lower hide that stood stock still but wasn't bothered by my presence allowing me to walk incredibly close. I had looked for the tawny owl here earlier, reported to be roosting in a nearby tree with visitors getting great opportunities to see it from the path close to the hide. Black caps and willow warblers sang tunefully as I made my way closer to the hide.
If you have ever had that feeling of a hide being rather like a portal to different places you will know what it was like to step into a hide facing the setting sun, observing the world beyond with quiet observation. That moment you enter a hide is filled with anticipation. What will you see? The wooded, shrouded and reeded paths change to open expanses of water and we tune into a different space of open surroundings outside the windows. Light streamed in as the decending orb shone its bright reflection onto the water in front of me. The scene was all the more poignant and calm being the only witness to the unfolding of the scene of the natural world in front of me.
Two cormorants hung themselves out to dry from the wooden posts. Coots and gadwalls floated on the water. The cloud of martins and swallows continued hawking the air above the scene. The black tern was moving in and out of the sunlight stream. It remained for the next half an hour or so with exceptionally good views. Unmistakable in its charcoal summer plumage.
Cormorant by Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
The last few days...
We have had an influx of waders and warblers of late whilst the number of ducks has decreased and the black-tailed godwits have reduced in number from over 3,000 at their peak 2 weeks ago to only a few hundred. Little ring plovers and greenshanks are increasingly regular on the Eric Morecambe pool. A spotted redshank was last record from lillian’s hide a few days ago. Great sightings and reports of grasshopper warblers continue on several areas of the reserve. With at least 20 avocets on nests we should see lots of great activity on the saltmarsh pools over the coming weeks.
The garganeys have decided to move back to using grisedale hide with regular reports of at least 1 male. Finally 2 common cranes were reported stopping off very briefly at Jenny Browns Point on Tuesday which is an exciting record.