One good Tern deserves another........

Elegant tern is one of those birds that have had a chequered history in the UK,. They breed on the western seaboard of the USA so aren't really expected to get here. There have been a number of records over the years - including one I saw in July 2002 that ended up in Black Rock Sands, N Wales. This one did the rounds having also been seen in Norfolk, Devon & Cornwall. Until recently none of the UK records were accepted onto the British list because of the uncertainty surrounding the possibility of hybrids or back-crosses with Sandwich Terns. 

Several pairs have now been proven to breed in the Banc d'Arguin, Gironde, France. See here for a 'Birdguides' article explaining how DNA analysis proved the existence of 'pure' Elegant Terns rather than hybrids or crosses. Since that discovery a number of British records, including the Black Rock Sands bird, have been accepted onto category A off the British list. One of the French ringed birds turned up in Pagham Harbour, Sussex in 2017 before subsequently moving to Dorset. They're still a rare bird in the UK with only 4 accepted records up until 2019.

When Mark Sutton saw a yellow / orange billed tern in the Sandwich Tern colony briefly at Cemlyn first thoughts were either Lesser -crested or even Royal but Mark got better photos and it turned (terrible pun) out he'd potentially found the UK's 5th record of Elegant Tern. 

A planned trip to the Skerries last Thursday afternoon, to ring Arctic Tern chicks, provided me with the opportunity to spend a few hours looking for the Elegant Tern as well as trying to get a few colour ring / flag combinations from the Sandwich Terns and hopefully pick up one of the chicks we flagged a few years ago now returning as an adult. See blog post from 2019 here.

Arriving just after 9 am I found a few people standing on the shingle bank talking as the Elegant Tern had flown out to sea about 30 minutes earlier. Busying myself looking for colour rings whilst I waited for it to return I didn't see it sneak in. Nor did anyone as it suddenly appeared displaying with a fish to a Sandwich Tern! For the next hour or so it played hide and seek in the vegetation, occasionally showing well but often hidden.

I did manage to find one of our orange flagged Sandwich Terns from 2019 - ANP! This bird is, so far, the only one thats been seen back at the colony and has ben previously recorded on 12th & 13th of June. I'm still waiting on the information from two more darvic ringed Sandwich Terns I also found.

With time pressing I walked back along the shingle to the Landrover before grabbing something to eat and heading to Holyhead to meet up with Rachel & Steve before getting our high speed RIB ride to the Skerries where wardens Laura and Anna were waiting to help us.

We couldn't go over to the island last year due to Covid restrictions and there were no wardens on either. It seems a peregrine disrupted the colony and all the terns deserted. This year they're back and the colony is its usual noisy tumultuous self! 

Arctic Terns are really spectacular little birds but highly aggressive and noisy. Wearing a hat is definitely recommended when ringing the chicks as the adults have no hesitation in trying to tattoo your head with their stiletto like bill. Even with a hat you can feel the strikes. A number of adults have again been flagged this year but this trip was all about the youngsters and we had a window where we needed to ring a sample of  500 as part of an ongoing project. Most chicks were well grown but the were a few unhatched eggs and a few chicks only just hatching. Another week and we would probably have missed the majority of the birds as a lot had already started flying short distances.

Newly hatched Arctic Tern chick with egg tooth visible

A pair of well  grown Arctic Tern chicks

An amazing variety of colours in these tern eggs.

With time pressing there was just time to photograph a few adults before heading back on the RIB to Holyhead and the slow drive home for a shower and some dinner. Access to the Skerries is very restricted and I'm lucky to be able to help Steve & Rachel with their ringing project.

These birds will soon be heading south to spend our winter in the antarctic. A truly spectacular migration for a spectacular little bird.