Cemlyn Bay - 17 Jul 20

Today, after the easing of the Covid travel restrictions to Wales, I made a visit to the North Wales Wildlife Trust's Reserve at Cemlyn Bay

This location is a breeding site for Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns. The visit needed to be made before the young fledged and they started to leave for Africa and beyond.

Here are some images from the visit. It was my first-time out with a new camera. Some are not as sharp as I would have liked and are included to show salient ID features. I'll get used to it – or vice versa.

It was 'busy', with birds bringing food to the juveniles and some juveniles just flying around testing their wings.

The largest of the trio of terns is the Sandwich Tern. A black bill with a yellow tip and a dark outer wing. This individual is just beginning to moult its head-feathers and a few white flecks are visible in the black cap.

Here are three adults and four rather mottled juveniles. Here we see the adults black head has a short crest.

An adult arriving with food.

And two fish. Perhaps it has twins?

A juvenile Sandwich Tern takes to the air. Note the short bill and tail; the rather rounded wing-tips and, just visible, the pattern on the upper wing.

Can be noisy. Here a Common Tern squawks its way in. Features to note here are the dark tip on an orange-red bill; and a dark area on the upper wing outer primaries similar to the Sandwich Tern.

The dark wedge on the outer wing is well seen here.

A Common Tern arrives with food.

Again

"You're going the wrong way!" Note the Sea Kale (Crambe maritima) on the pebble-strewn beach.

In front of an adult Arctic Tern is a first summer and non-breeding bird. It is a bit of a puzzle as first-summer Arctic Terns are rare on the breeding grounds, staying in the Southern Hemisphere. Separation of first summer Arctic and Common is not easy. This, despite its proximity to the Arctic adult, seems to a Common Tern. The shape of the dark head pattern, the length of the bill and the length of the legs all point this way – Arctic Terns have very short legs and appear almost legless when standing. Note this bird is ringed – likely here last year.

Compare this Arctic Tern with the Common Tern. Note the all blood-red bill; and the thin dark trailing edge to both upper and underwing.

Here an Arctic Tern brings some food. Note how pale this bird looks. Also the long tail feathers.

 The are very elegant flyers. Pity that America has already named a different species as Elegant Tern.

This one gets a noisy 'welcome' from resting birds.

Here is another noisy welcome. Four adult Arctic Terns, two first-summer terns with dark bills, black legs and white foreheads (juveniles would have browner, mottled backs) and one hiding its identity. The first summers are a bit of a puzzle. First-summer Arctic Terns are rare on the breeding grounds, mostly staying in the Southern Hemisphere. Separation of first summer Arctic and Common is not easy. These, despite their proximity to the Arctic adults, seem to a Common Terns. The shape of the dark head pattern and the length of the bill point this way. Strange.

Here is a juvenile Arctic Tern. A juvenile Common Tern would be more gingery on the back. All juvenile terns have short bills.

There were a few other birds that I took a few shots of. It was the terns that were the main target

A few ever-noisy Oystercatchers were on the beach.

One of a number of Little Egrets present

A passing Great Black-backed Gull. Note the back and inner wings are as dark as the wing tips. The white trailing edge to the wing appears narrower than it does on the smaller Lesser Back-backed Gull. A huge bill – these fierce predators have been known to swallow Puffins whole.

Not many passerines in this harsh environment – Meadow Pipits can withstand the winds by hunkering down in the grass.

(Ed Wilson)