The Terns are back.

107. Sandwich Tern Sterna sandvicensis

I walked out to Killard again today and the tide was as high as I had seen it there. Many of the offshore outcrops were completely covered consequently not a great deal of birdlife. Quite alot of herring and black headed gull sitting out on the water,a few brent geese of which two were ringed .Both right legs had a B and on the left leg H and I on the other. I will have to ring Kerry Mackie at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust up at Castle Espie to see where they were ringed. I was mainly trying to spot any smaller migrants in the gorse and bramble bushes on top of the headland to no avail apart from loads of meadow pipits and skylarks all singing away.

Then I heard the unmistakeable sound of a tern and looked up to see a Sandwich Tern obviously back from the west African coast. The Sandwich tern is a very white tern, with a black cap on its head, a long black bill with a yellow tip and short black legs. In flight it shows grey wedges on its wings tips and it has a short forked tail. It always gives me a buzz to see the birds that have gone away over the winter coming back.

I am going to have to get a recorder so that I can record some of the bird sound that I hear as I am not brilliant on bird identification from sound, I know a certain amount but still could do with learning alot more. So anybody reading this with any information on cheap bird recording instruments please let me know.