As I pulled into the layby adjacent the quay Rob Jones was just pulling out, we stopped to chat briefly and Rob who had missed the bird by five minutes sped off to Eglwys Nunydd reservoir to see if the bird had dropped in there, meanwhile myself and Pearl my dog ventured halfway down the river in an attempt to refind the bird but we were out of luck.
I had intended to move on to Kenfig Pool and did just that hoping that the bird may drop in there, I settled down and Paul 'Sid' Parsons strolled up from the north end, he stated that he was heading south for Sker and we both agreed that we would phone each other should we get a sighting.
Time passed and then I got a call from 'Sid' confirming that the tern had been relocated on the beach west of the mussel beds.
I put the word out on the 'grapevine' text service and gave Rob Jones a call who in company with Darren Coombes was at Morfa so not too far from the bird.
Pearl and myself made a brisk dash for the coast and after a scan with the bins located some birders in the distance, upon arrival I was greeted by Rob, Darren, and also Judd Hunt and Alex Bevan to be told that I had missed the bird by five minutes it having flown inland over the dunes towards the pool.
Judd and Alex departed and myself, Rob and Darren decided to climb up to one of the higher dunes to see if we could see the bird over the pool.
Just as we were about to set off the tern flew back into the beach and landed about 80m from us, we kept a safe distance and I managed some decent 'record' shots as the bird moved around for the next hour or so.......
We were joined by Barry and Sandra Stewart, a birder I didn't know and Dave Pritchard and the bird continued to show well if a little mobile......
Richard Smith phoned and as others departed I said I would stay but five minutes before Richard arrived with Steve Hinton and Alan Hughes the tern took flight again heading north east towards the pool.
Steve and Alan headed for the Kenfig rivermouth and myself, Richard and Phil Bristow who had also turned up parked ourselves on a dune but with no success headed for the pool.
A phonecall from Paul Roberts confirmed that the bird was showing well in flight over the pool and as myself and Richard neared the south hide the tern flew back towards the beach passing directly over us.
As we got to the hide Mike Powell passed us heading for the beach as did Steve and Alan, myself and Richard decided to stay in the hide hoping that the bird would return again and were joined by father and son visiting birders from Suffolk who were thrilled at having caught up with this very special tern.
We put in another half hour in the hide but as the light started to fade we decided to call it a day and we both headed for home.
A few other birders turned up at the pool and we picked out Neil Donaghy, Gareth Stamp, Martin Bevan and Phil Hill.
What an up and down day but at the end of it a UK 'tick' for me and some reasonable 'record' photos,
result !!!
The bird was not refound yesterday evening but today it has been seen and photographed at WWT, Llanelli, hopefully it will head back east and drop in again somewhere in Glamorgan.
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