Palpitations and a bad hair day at Martin Mere

Ok, I know it's a common tern, but if you had a brief glimpse of this head peaking out from in amongst a group of black-headed gulls what would you think!

Imagine if you couldn't see the rest of it's body, just the head and bill, for a split second. 

I've seen a common tern like this previously, a very late bird at Pennington Flash (opens in a new window) in October 2017 which had a yellow tip to its bill. I don't know if it's the time of year or just that a percentage of common terns don't have a black tip or perhaps it's a non-breeding thing, I don't know, but the lack of a black tip seems to make the bill look larger and the yellowy tip makes the overall bill look more orange than red. At least to my partially colourblind eyes it does! Add to this the lack of tail streamers and yes it's safe to say that for a moment at least I was aware of my heart beat! Pity about the red legs.....

I can find no reference online or in any of my books including BWP, to common terns with yellow tips to their bills at any time of year or at any age. Furthermore, I've posted this on various social media outlets and I get almost no replies and very few likes. At the time of writing I've seen just two other photos of birds with yellow tips, one from Hoylake in September 2019 of a bird which looks like the Pennington Flash bird with a dark bill and yellow tip and the other from South West Spain on 1st September 2024 of a bird which looks identical to todays bird. Interestingly all four birds were adults photographed in late summer or autumn. Based on the evidence I have seen so far, I can only assume that this is a very unusual feature of common tern at this time of year.

This was the bird at Pennington Flash on 9th October 2017. It has the yellow tip but in this case I don't think the bill looks as long and it's certainly darker than todays bird.

Meanwhile there were at least 20 cattle egrets on the mere.

For good or bad the quality of these images was affected by the fact that I was viewing through (dirty) glass at the Raines hide and it was raining at the time. At least I wasn't being buffeted by the wind though, which possibly would have made the photos worse!

I think the bird on the left is a juvenile, of which there were at least three present. These are locally bred birds.

Possibly the most unexpected sight of the day though was a peacock in the United Utilities hide.