This species of tern has never been accepted onto the British List, the chances of being able to prove that they were not a hybrid`s has always clouded the issue. Three Elegant Tern`s have been breeding with Sandwich Tern`s for a few years in the south of France, producing hybrids, the adults are rung differently and DNA samples have categorically proved them to be pure Elegant Tern`s. One of these birds was seen on Hayling Island, Hampshire for a short while on two different occasions, last week. No more sightings of the bird were seen until last Saturday morning, this time in Pagham Harbour, Sussex in with a colony of breeding terns.
With such a positive identification on the birds identity, we organised a trip to go and see the bird. Messages were sent out and a team of myself, Bob K, Andy M and one of our original team Kevin C, welcome back Kev. At 11-30pm on Sunday night I left Rochdale picking up our team on route, Andy M near Warrington was last at 12-30am and off we went in my car. We made good time, as it was my idea to get a place to park on the Church Norton car park, thus avoiding a long walk. It was just coming light as we arrived at 4-45am with only 6 cars on the car park. We hurried down the short path and joined the other 12 early birders. At 5am the Elegant Tern was seen preening on a sand bar, about 150 yards away in poor light. At 5-30am we watched the bird flying around and then flying out to sea. It would be almost three hours before it returned. We watched the other birds seeing: - Sandwich, Common & Little Tern`s, Greater Black Backed, Herring & Black Headed Gull`s and a final count of around 100+ Mediterranean Gull`s, very impressive. Ringed Plover, Redshank, Mallard, Coot, Grey Heron and lots of Swallow`s.
At 8-20am a message on Rare Bird Alert said the Elegant Tern had flown in and landed out of sight on Tern Island. It was a difficult bird to see as the grass was quite long. Once we had it pinned down though, the bird kept flying up and showing itself to all the birders who just kept watching the right spot with their telescopes. It was a difficult bird to see, but these views of it were very good in sunny conditions. Just after 10am we decided to retire to the car for food and refreshment and then start the journey home. We made a couple of stops on the way back and I got home at 4-15pm, a long but memorable day out!
