News broke at midday that the elegant tern found in Hampshire earlier this week was refound at Chruch Norton, Pagham Harbour. The site is over 2 hours away from Yeovil, and with only an hour until high tide, I assumed the bird would be long gone by the time I got there. I kept watching the reports and indeed, the bird disappeared for long periods. Lewis texted me to say he was free at 4pm. I checked the sightings and the tern was back! I gathered my supplies, picked up Lewis and headed for West Sussex.
We arrived at the Pagham Harbour car park at 18:40. I visited the site once in 2015, so followed the same path towards Chruch Norton. The walk was longer than I remembered, but we were awarded on arrival with flight views of the ELEGANT TERN! It spent most of its time in flight or hidden in amongst the tern colony and flirting with one of the local Sandwich Terns. Eventually, we got the on-the-deck views that allowed me to get some acceptable record shots, and allow us to get a proper look at the long drooped crest and long two-tone bill, quite distictive compared to the sandwich terns. Other species of note this evening include a single Black Tern and several Little Terns and Mediterranean Gulls.
ELEGANT TERN - Church Norton
Black Tern - Church Norton
Little Tern - Church Norton
Pagham Harbour
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