One Good Tern!

Fulmar. Peter Guy.

Well, I've been on the Lune Estuary and gazed at the Irish Sea today so the photograph of the Fulmar is at least appropriate from that aspect and many thanks for the photograph Peter.

I just about had the time to give Conder Green the customary 'going over' today and again observed the very mysterious pair of Little Ringed Plover on Conder Pool with the female sat on the nest again, the Spotted Redshank duly obliged again and continues with its rapid plumage transformation, with 11 Common Sandpipers I was one down on Fridays count of twelve, and a Little Egret was in the creeks, hard to believe not all that many years ago my mobile would have been throwing sparks at the sight of this bird, 3 Wigeon were again on the pool, and uncounted House Martins are still active at River Winds.

As expected the Lune Estuary from Glasson Dock was rather unimpressive save 7 Eider and an adult Arctic Tern which I picked up fishing in the shallows before obligingly coming to preen and briefly rest nearby before taking off again.

I often halt on Jeremy Lane to see if I can find the Little Owl in/on the derelict farm buildings and rarely do, but today it was on the crossbeam inside the building on the left. A visit to Cockersands - though it could never have been more than a brief one - turned out to be no more than a short walk along the headland.

Arctic Tern. 

The Arctic Tern was a welcome sight on the Lune Estuary and was the 'made my day' bird. The Arctic Tern has never been common in Lancashire, though in the early part of the 20th century small numbers were present in a ternery within the Ainsdale-Formby sand dunes but the ternery was driven to extinction by development of buildings and for tourism. The Arctic Terns then transferred to the Ribble Marshes where precise figures were difficult to achieve but probably never reached a double number. The only other breeding site has been on the Lune Estuary which achieved a peak of 15 pairs in 1972, but the colony went into decline and fell to two pairs by 1999 with no indication of breeding in 2000.

So, lucky me with an Arctic Tern today close to where they once bred and having in my sights a bird which moves on a global scale performing the most mind boggling migratory journey undertaken by any bird, literally crosses the world and experiences more daylight than any other living organism on planet earth....some distinction I'd say.