I was lured to the Mere this morning as a Black Tern had been reported. Then a White-winged Black Tern turned up as well 😊
I had set off with my Nikon bridge camera as butterflies and dragonflies were abundant yesterday and my Canon with 400mm lens attached was too long, but the bridge camera would be fine for close ups.
Damn! If ever I needed my SLR quality it was today as the Black Tern landed on a buoy and gave reasonable views from KP, but the photos I managed to get of it weren't very good as you can see below.
Black Terns appear quite regularly each year over the Mere, but only in ones or twos, so it's always good to catch sight of one.
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black Tern |
As I was watching the Black Tern it flew off, so I moved a couple of yards to my right to look towards Swan Island to see if I could follow it. I saw a bird that I thought was the Black Tern and fired off a few frames once I got it in the camera lens, but it looked different to the bird I'd seen before...
George was with me and came over to look too, and sure enough it appeared to be a White-winged Black Tern. We get even fewer of these birds over the Mere than Black Terns so I was well chuffed.
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| White-winged Black Tern |
So two marsh terns within a few minutes of each other was a real bonus. Along with half a dozen or so Common Terns that are usually seen at the Mere these days, it was a grand morning.
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