Beddington Farm - Having a funny Tern!

This morning I took another tour of the Farm starting at the area N of the North Lake. I then took a quick look at Jim’s bed on 100 Acre, before moving on to Bikers Field and then Bedzed field. There were no great surprises but it was a joy to watch a large family of Blue Tit the young all lined up waiting for their parents to feed them. They all looked so peaceful as mum and dad raced around collecting food for their siblings. A smaller family were seen along the edge of the Bedzed field but there were only a couple of mouths to feed.

Having completed my tour of these areas I headed back to the North Lake where Frank was scanning the lake. Swifty joined us a short time later. There is a pair of Sand Martin that have been prospecting the artificial bank therefore viewing operations have moved to a small sheltered area between the hide and the bank. Frank had gone for a walk over the mound when I spotted a tern flying low over the Lake. I put the camera to work straight away as the bird completed a quick circuit of the island and sailed away N.  

A few moments later what I thought was the same bird appeared over the lake. A few more pictures later and this bird left in the same direction! I was confident the birds were Common Tern but wanted to make certain so we all trooped into the hide where the light was better for looking at pictures in a viewfinder. This confirmed that there were two terns that had made a brief visit to the lake. The second bird had more black on the leading edge of the primaries and darker outer edge to the secondaries.

Heavy rain is due this evening from the SW and this is scheduled to continue throughout the rest of tomorrow. Will the day be a complete washout or will there be a surprise visitor or two!!