Elegant Tern for lifer at Church Norton W Sussex.

Despite Brian having a bad back & not looking like he would make it today, the thought of missing out on a lifer was to much for him to take, so we meet up & head to Pagham Harbour in the hope that the Elegant Tern had hung about for another day.
We arrive at 7 am & get lucky when we get parked at the church & that is only a very short walk to join the 30 or so birders already looking across to  the Tern colony.
They soon get us onto the Tern as it flies along the fence line & then back again to land out of sight in the long grass.
This is the pattern for the next hour until it flies a bit closer to us & lands but only showing it's head but that gives us great views of it's beak.
It then takes off & flies across the front of the now much larger crowd & heads out of sight over the beach & for the next two hours it never came back.
So with a nice lifer in the bag it's off home leaving a very large crowd waiting for it's return.


                                                         

Part of the large crowd 300 or more over a few hours.

Brian's record shot