Black Terns - Filey, 14th August 2020

The irony of the busiest times for birding being the worst for blogging about it isn't lost on me, but the reality is often that the more entertaining the birds are, the quieter these pages (and the more congested the memory cards) become.....

It's been a pleasing birding-filled period of late, for business and pleasure (= pleasure and pleasure), and I'll attempt more recaps in the coming days, but here's a few from the other evening on the Brigg, of three fine Black Terns that spent an hour or two in with a noisy mixed flock of over 200 Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns.

Large flocks of terns on the Brigg are an unpredictable and transient treat, and Black Terns are scarce locally - I probably average two or three a year, usually as fly-bys on seawatches - and so even in the gloomy evening light, it was a treat to spend some quality time with them. My first Long-tailed Skua of the year, Little, Mediterranean and Yellow-legged Gulls and a Wheatear in off the sea added to a particularly lovely couple of hours on the home patch.