Beacon Ponds

Roseate Tern
Knot
Roseate Tern

Little Tern
Little Tern

I was a bit pushed for time this Sunday and as much as I would have liked a trip North for the terek sandpiper, I had to make do with searching for Roseate Terns at beacon Ponds.

A big tide was forecast and high water was about 8.30 so I set off at about 5.30am in the hope of catching the waders as they moved off the Humber mudflats.

The wind had veered southerly from the stron south easterly the day before.

I was a bit concerned that the sea would have been a bit rough and made the walk to the hide at Beacon Ponds a bit more of a challenge.

The walk along Beacon Lane was uneventful apart from a single sedge warbler and even when I reached the hide there were only a few birds.The obligatory ringed plover were skulking on the sand dunes and the sandwich terns were quite flighty.A couple of black headed gulls and the odd common tern were amongst the flock.Quite a few swifts were passing through but no sign of anything special amongst them.

The wader numbers built up as the tide flooded and grey plovers were joined by dunlin,knot and turnstone.

Still no sign of the roseate terns.

Another small flock of Dunlin were joined by a single curlew sandpiper, unfortunately it was not summer plumaged and remained distant.

The tern numbers continued to build up mainly sandwich and the odd common.

Little terns were buzzing about overhead and every now and then a male would bring a sandeel to an unimpressed female crouching in the dunes.a distant greenshank and a couple of redshanks offered soem variation on the wader front, then finally as the terns kept on coming a fine roseate tern landed on the furthest spit and started preening.

Its pink breast stood out quite considerably from the paler sandwich terns.The photos do not really do it justice.

Not much on the way back, only common stuff on Beacon Lane.

It did look promising and I will be back there again in the next couple of weeks, Terek Sandpier would be nice.