18th July 2015

Went to Kingsteinton today to look for the Gull-Billed Tern. Parked up at the Passage House Inn, however the bird had not showed all day. There was little else of interest on show other than some whimbrel, but some entertainment was had from a day-flying bat that flew very low over our heads several times, before landing on a post, allowing a rare close-range photo opportunity in good light.

Shortly after this, the bat started to descend the post, before jumping down directly into the water! It swam back to the post but was unable to climb it. At this point, another birder waded into the water to fish it out, and placed onto a nearby tree.

The Bat going for a swim!

After some lunch, we headed to the mouth of the estuary, where 4 common sandpipers and good numbers of quite distant sandwich terns were present. Scanning through the terns, I found a slightly smaller, darker individual which had a greyish upper-tail in flight, however I now think that the bird was just a young sandwich tern. After this, we had to leave, though the tern was not seen for the rest of the day. Another case of arriving exactly a day late!