Thursday 22nd June

Elegant Tern

My mate Andy and myself went up to look for an Elegant Tern that was seen yesterday on Brownsea Island near Sandbanks in Dorset . We got to Sandbanks ferry terminal around 11 a/m and had to wait for the ferry , as we were stood there some Terns came in from the seaward side of the terminal most of them were Common Tern and a few Sandwich Tern , then there right in front of me a tern flew by close to shore , my brain took a while to take in what I was looking at but I was lost for words . Andy must have picked it up the same time as me because then we both shouted out in unison Elegant Tern , we then watched the bird fly in front of us heading towards Brownsea Island until it was lost from sight .
We then caught the ferry over to the island expecting it to be in with the other terns but we never saw it again .There was a report from a birder on the island that he had picked it up around the same time but it was flying back towards the sea again . Both Andy and myself had seen the Elegant Tern at Dawlish Warren in Devon back in 2002 but it was still nice to catch up with another one .