Sep 8th Ormesby Broad

I was told to go to Ormesby Broad as there was a white-winged black tern there at the moment. So this afternoon, I popped over to try and see it for myself. I was hoping to see the car park and surrounding area packed with twitchers, but amazingly there were only two birders here. They were about to leave and so I asked if the tern was about. They told me it was on the far side of the broad on the other side of the busy road bridge adjacent to the car park we were in. It sounded like I had missed out and had to travel miles round the other end of the broad. But after a quick scan, I found a bird that seems to look like the bird I was after.

I crossed the busy main road with my parents and scanned again. It was still there! It was a small tern with a dark back, pale white wings and a white tail. The head was white with black markings, which means this was either a juvenile or an adult in winter plumage. White-winged black terns are completely black with white wings and tails in summer at their breeding grounds in Eastern Europe. It is a mouthful of a bird to say, but a lovely bird to see.

White-winged Black Tern

The tern flew continuously over the broad, from one side to the other and back again. It appeared to be doing laps around the distant end of the lake, flying as if attatched to strings like a puppet, swooping up and down with the odd dive added in now and then. It did rest on a post, but was too far out of my camera's range and the shots you see here were the best I could get, a fuzzy blob in the distance. Through my scope though, it was much clearer and it posed long enough for the three of us to see. We also saw a pair of kingfishers, one chasing the other around the lake.

Not long before we were about to leave, a twitcher joins us and helped to confirm that this was indeed a white-winged black tern. This was great to hear. Not only was this my first ever sighting and was a great bird to see, but finding it myself with no other birdwatcher to show me where it was made it a more special occasion for me. It was a special sighting for me, if only I had a better shot of it to show you all.