31/08/2015 White - winged Black Tern but no Icterine Warbler

Bank Holiday Monday  31/08/2015
ARC Hanson Hide, Dungeness

Shocking weather for the bank holiday!  After ensuring the dogs had their morning run (between the showers) I set out for Dungeness.  Target birds were an Icterine Warbler that had been seen in the bushes by the visitors centre and a couple of White-winged Black Terns that had been sighted from the ARC Hanson Hide.

• I "dipped" with the warbler.  By the time I got there it had disappeared and, despite a dozen or so birders looking for it, we were unable to find it.

• The terns were much more obliging with both of them flying with several Black Terns behind the cormorant island. 



White-winged Black Tern
Library picture

I'm so pleased to get any birdwatching  today in such poor weather, let alone twitch a rare bird! 

 

 

Addition to BUBO UK 2015 Bird List: 

White-winged Black Tern   (249)

 

 

 

• The white-winged tern, or white-winged black tern (Chlidonias leucopterus or Chlidonias leucoptera), is a small tern generally found in or near bodies of fresh water across from Southeastern Europe east to Australia.

• The name 'white-winged tern' is the standard in most English-speaking countries; in Britain, this name is also the one used by the formal ornithological recording authorities, but the older alternative 'white-winged black tern' is still frequent in popular use.

•  Their breeding habitat is freshwater marshes across from southeast Europe to central Asia; they migrate to Africa, southern Asia and Australia.

• Like the other "marsh" terns (Chlidonias), and unlike the "white" (Sterna) terns, these birds do not dive for fish, but fly slowly over the water to surface-pick items on the surface and catch insects in flight. They mainly eat insects and small fish. In flight, the build appears thick-set. The wing-beats are shallow and leisurely.