Whilst at the caravan in the first week of August news emerged of a Bridled Tern at Hafan-Y-Mor, Nr Criccieth, North Wales.
This was a 'mega' sighting and there aren't that many records of the species in the UK.
I really fancied a day out 'twitching' the bird and made it known on Ceredigion Birds and Wildlife Facebook page, takers for the 'twitch' were Martin Creasser from Aberystwyth and Paul Mahiques from Crymych, two local birders that I have got to know.
I met Paul at Tesco in Cardigan and with me at the wheel we made good time to the location, Martin living further north had a head start and decided to travel up on his own and we met up at the assembled group on birders.
The tern was not present amongst the large number of other terns comprising Sandwich and Common Terns but after a wait of a couple of hours it flew in off the sea to the great delight of those present, prior to that we managed to see 4 very distant Arctic Skuas that were 'mugging' the terns for fish.
It perched up on the rocky foreshore taking flight now and again but always returning to the same spot.
It was always distant, approx 100-150m and a close approach was out of the question, I did however with the aid of my 1.4x extender on my 150-400/500mm lens manage some decent 'record' shots of this superb rare tern which was a 'lifer' for the three of us.......
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