Tag Archives: Arctic tern

An arctic tern on passage

15 Thursday Oct 2026

Posted by in autumn, birds

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

When an exciting alert appeared in my local birding WhatsApp group on Friday 2 October, I was off. First, I had to run for the train – I’m old, I never run, but there are only two trains an hour to Cardiff’s northern reservoirs and I was conscious that migrating birds often don’t linger long.

And, at first, I thought that was exactly what had happened because, when I got to Llanishen Reservoir, I was told the Arctic tern had just flown off high to the south. Fortunately, as you can see from my photographs, after about 10 minutes, the bird reappeared and proceeded to entertain me and several other birders with its aerial display.

This particular Arctic tern had an interesting routine. It was favouring the northern end of the reservoir, where it would fly back and forth over the water in its constant search for food, occasionally dipping low to the water, sometimes splashing right in. When it eventually caught a sprat, it would fly to the reservoir embankment, perch on the stones to eat its prey, and let the food digest for 5 to 10 minutes before taking flight to repeat the process once more.

By the end of the day, the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) had flown off, hopefully well fuelled to continue its epic migration journey – the longest of any bird – to spend the southern summer in Antarctica.

T is for tern

25 Thursday Dec 2025

Posted by in birds

≈ Comments Off on T is for tern

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Terns are such skilled fliers that they are always a real delight to watch in motion and, during 2025, I’ve had the absolute pleasure of spending time watching four different species, mostly because of my three summer visits to Weymouth but we’ve also had a couple of tern visitors in Cardiff Bay as well.

First up were Common terns (Sterna hirundo) (above), seen in large numbers during my first visit of the year to Weymouth, which was particularly special as these birds breed at Lodmoor Nature Reserve (Breeding Common terns, 17 June). I saw the Common terns during subsequent visits too, and we were treated to super close views of a rare visitor to Cardiff in later September (below) (A Common tern up close, 26 September).

Little terns (Sternula albifrons) breed at Chesil beach in Weymouth and I saw several of these little beauties during an earlier visit to Weymouth, at Ferrybridge, on 10 June, though I didn’t see any of the chicks and my photos from that visit only showed distant specks along the beach. I managed to get better, though still not close views of Little terns during my second Weymouth visit – these are included in a post about Lodmoor’s distant birds, 7 August (shown below).

We had an Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) visitor in Cardiff Bay in September but it was always too distant for anything other than distant blurry record photographs, which is why I didn’t blog about that sighting. And my final tern species for the year was the Sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) (below). These beauties were on show at Ferrybridge on 9 September and at Lodmoor on 11 September (Sandwich terns, 19 September). It was a terrific year for terns!

Arctic tern

17 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by in birds, spring

≈ Comments Off on Arctic tern

Tags

, , , , , ,

Terns of any description rarely visit Cardiff Bay but, if they’re ever going to, now, on Spring passage, is the time of year for it to happen … and it did, for two days at the end of last week. (Terns do sometimes pop in on Autumn passage as well, depending on the weather.) The Bay has some very keen and knowledgeable resident birders so when one of those, Gareth, put out the word that he’d seen a tern in the Bay, thought it was an Arctic tern but didn’t have his ‘scope with him, other locals quickly headed down with their equipment to check it out. Arctic tern it was! (Common and Arctic terns can be tricky to tell apart, and the term ‘commic’, a combination of their names, is used by birders when uncertain.)

230417 arctic tern (1)

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get there that afternoon so imagine my delight when word came through from Gareth again the next day that the tern was still showing. Though rain threatened and did, in fact, interrupt play a couple of times, I managed to find the tern. Sadly, it wasn’t giving the close views it had the day before and was mostly a small dot on the other side of the water until, when it decided to fly onwards, it flew almost directly over my head. A head-terning moment!

230417 arctic tern (2)

The autumn migration is underway

11 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by in autumn, birds, nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s that time of year, tinged ever so slightly with sadness but enlivened with occasional moments of great excitement, when bird populations begin their autumn migration. My local Swifts have headed south for the winter and I shall miss their dawn and dusk screaming, the sound of summer for me, and there have been good numbers of Swallows and House martins swirling above Cardiff Bay, in a final feeding frenzy before they too head south.

I’ve spotted small flocks of Willow warblers and Chiffchaffs, moving through my local nature reserves and parks, stocking up on nutrients before they also begin their long flights. And, this week, a Spotted flycatcher became my 186th bird species for 2018, when I saw it passing through Cosmeston.

180811 3 Spotted flycatcher

As well as those birds that are departing for sunnier wintering spots, there are also birds returning from their colder breeding locations to spend the winter in Britain’s relatively warm climes. I saw my first two returning Turnstones, still in their summer plumage, during a wander along the Ely embankment on Wednesday.

180811 4 turnstone

Also at Cardiff Bay this week have been a couple of those birds that provide birders, local and distant alike, with a quickening of the heart rate. First, a first summer Arctic tern arrived to join the Cardiff Bay bird population, and then a juvenile Little gull also joined the party, though neither bird has been welcomed by the local gulls.

180811 5 arctic tern

I saw both birds being chased and mobbed on Wednesday, and a little later that same day my friend John caught some amazing shots of a Black-headed gull almost drowning the Little gull – luckily, it escaped. (Bird xenophobia? No one seems to know why the local gulls are being so aggressive.)

180811 8 arctic tern being chased

Above, Arctic tern being chased; below, Little gull also being pursued

180811 9 little gull being chased

Let’s hope further newcomers are given a warmer welcome to our local waters and, indeed, let’s just hope for further newcomers – there’s nothing quite like an exciting sighting to quicken a birder’s pulse!