cliftonbirding: A closer Tern by a Whisker

Monday 23 May 2016

A closer Tern by a Whisker

Sunday the 22nd and I went up to Teesside again mainly for a photo session with the long staying Whiskered Terns at Saltholme that I had seen distantly when they first turned up, they had been showing quite well recently, an imm Little Gull was seen as I scanned Saltholme West before I went in, on the reserve the Terns didn’t disappoint showing well on the Main Lake then later from Paddy’s Pool Hide although not that easy to photograph (there was a lot of deleting to do), it was fairly quiet otherwise so upon hearing there had still been a couple of Dotterel at Danby Beacon on Saturday evening I decided to head off there, I arrived just as the forecast Showers did so it was a case of driving up and down the road a couple of times then sitting out the rain, it certainly wasn’t looking very promising but as the rain eased off Vince and Geoff from Leeds who I had seen earlier arrived and said when they had seen them a couple of years ago they'd had to walk out on to the moor, we gave it a go and hats off to Geoff who obviously had a bit more belief than us and wandered further in eventually coming across a lone female, a very smart and confiding bird. It was late afternoon by this time and I decided to finish off at Sutton Bank as the Turtle Doves had been reported back in, almost abandoned it after driving through some pretty heavy rain over the moors but it cleared as I reached Helmsley so I carried on and into a nice sunny evening, two Doves were purring away in the conifers near the car park when I got there and they did eventually drop down into the trees near the feeders but never really settled and soon returned to the conifers, oh well another time maybe.