In heavy rain and dark, murky conditions at noon, and 10 minutes after I'd predicted it, an adult moulting black tern dropped in at the flash and started feeding in amongst the hirundines.
I was trapped in Horrock's hide, for some reason I had not bothered putting my coat on when I left the car and when it was still dry, but now I was regretting that decision. So I settled down to wait for the rain to clear and hopefully pick up some decent birds. The black tern was a great start!
I didn't have long to wait for the next. At about 12:30 I saw five waders flying towards the spit, very low over the water. They were obviously dunlin size and shape, but as they arrived at the spit and attempted to land I could see that they appeared paler than dunlin with white, unmarked underparts and a buffy breast. They turned slightly and now I could see what appeared to be white rumps. They were clearly juvenile curlew sandpipers but unfortunately they didn't land, they turned and headed away into the murk south and were lost. All very frustrating, though perhaps their brief appearance through the rain and amongst hundreds of hirundines created an even more evocative experience and one which will live long in the memory.
Later in the afternoon at 14:50 there was a report of five curlew sandpipers at Elton Hall Flash, Sandbach, and it's tempting to think that they were the same birds.
Other birds today included 10 wigeon which dropped in at 8:15, a juvenile shelduck and five swifts around the same time and a flyover ring-necked parakeet in the afternoon .
Black terns at the flash have been pretty scarce in the past couple of years following a bumper year in 2023 when there were over 20 present on a single day in spring. Last year there was just one bird and as far as I know this is the first bird of 2025.
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