On Sunday 1st August 2021 an Elegant Tern was found at Formby Point on the beach, it would appear to be the one that spent most of the summer at Cemlyn Bay tern colony on Anglesey. It was found on the following days near to Blundellsands Sailing Club. A large sandbank held lots of gulls, terns etc over the high tide, but other times the terns seem to disperse mainly onto the edge of the tideline, making identification very difficult as the sea goes a long way out.
On Wednesday Kevin C and myself decided to try to see the Elegant Tern, we parked at Crosby beach in beautiful sunshine and began the 2/3 of a mile walk north. We did however notice that the tide was a long way out, then after meeting a couple of birders who told us that they had not seen the bird in a 3 hour search. We began to have bad feelings about our chances! After lots of searching we left after 2 hours, but I did say It will be found this evening As we got to Rochdale around 6pm, sure enough the bird had been seen, ah well!
After a message from Rochdale`s premier birder, Alan N for information about the Elegant Tern`s whereabouts, a decision was made to go to see the bird early on Friday morning. The weather forecast was for heavy showers in the Blundellsands area had been noted, but the hide tide prediction was 10-45am, which should surely help us? Lots of showers along the motorway did not dampen our enthusiasm, then news that the bird was still present helped us. We reached the sailing club area and began the search from the dunes, when a rather large shower hit us full on. We headed back to the sailing club and saw 3 birders searching for the tern, after 5 minutes the bird was located and distant views were had of it as it mixed itself in with lots of other terns and gulls. All the birds took to the air after an unseen bird of prey spooked them. We headed onto the beach and began to search for it again without much success, but really enjoying the experience of watching the tide coming in and what the various bird species did. We also managed to bump into 2 of Pennington Flashs top birders Colin D & John T, always good to have a chat. We managed to see 7 gull species, 4 tern species and 8 wading species, with others a total of 28 species. We both enjoyed catching up with the Elegant Tern although a better view would have been nice, the weather had been very kind, but the journey home was heavy rain all the way!
