The gull-billed tern at Thurstaston eventually performed very well today, finally showing up at about 15:40 after a four hour wait. It seems to be very much a low tide bird, picking crabs or other invertabrates off the exposed beach rather than diving into the sea for fish as you might expect from a typical tern. In fact for the past two days it has gone missing for long periods over the high tide and must either just sit out the tide somewhere or perhaps even moves inland or hunts over the saltmarsh. Also today three Mediterranean gulls flew down river, two adults and a juvenile.
It was just a beautiful day at a great location in good company. Great to watch the ebb and flow of the tide and the calls of the curlew alone were worth the visit!
This was my third gull-billed tern in North West England, the others have been at Burton Mere Wetlands on 3rd July 2015 and Martin Mere on 26th July 2017. They have all had their merits, the Martin Mere bird in particular was a great record for the reserve, but todays bird was the best performer in the most beautiful location.
This was my first day out with my new telescope and this photo was hand held phone scoped on 60x in a serious heat haze with the bird at a distance of about 400m so no, I'm not going to apologise for the quality, in fact I'm delighted with how it's turned out.
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