When a Bridled Tern appeared on the Farne Islands at the start of the week I hoped it might stay & allow me to attempt a twitch on the Saturday. When it disappeared mid week I thought that was probably that. However, even better, it appeared on the mainland at Cresswell on the Friday & so a twitch was on.
Leaving Glasgow at 5am I was at Cresswell for 7:30 and promptly took up my position with about another 50 birders and prepared to wait. Hour after hour passed with only 2 Ruddy Shelducks and a Med Gull to break the monotony. One Surrey twitcher went on an on an on and on about how if the Tern did not show in the next 2 hours he was going to miss the boat for Islay that night. Was I the only one who wanted to tell him to "STFU"? This guy never raised his binoculars once to help look for the Tern or indeed any other bird but just went on and on and on in a very loud voice about not getting to Islay. What a boring bastard !
Anyway after 6 hours, news came through that the Tern was at Saltholm RSPB, about 50 miles down the coast. I hastily climbed into the car and proceeded south. I unfortunately, missed the bird by perhaps up to 30 minutes and despite waiting for it to appear back for 3 hours it never did, preferring instead to return to East Chevington about 5 miles north of where I had started at Cresswell.
On the credit side, it is worth saying that the diversion to Saltholm did provide some compensation in the form of a cracking adult Roseate Tern & a Hobby.
As I write this (Monday evening), the Bridled Tern is still appearing at East Chevington. If it is still around on Thursday I'm going to give it another go on Friday.
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