Black Tern - Pennington Flash, Greater Manchester

Back at Pennington Flash again this afternoon. Thankfully, a few Little Gulls were still hanging around. I counted at least three adult birds, one of which showed much better than my visit on Friday.

The light was still poor, but this bird flew within 20 metres of the shore line


At one point, the sailing boats came pretty close to the spit, forcing the Little Gulls and several Common Terns towards the northern shore.

The sailors didn't seem too interested in the Little Gull above their heads

The bird of the day though was a Black Tern. I spotted it almost immediately on a buoy, but it performed several flights around the flash while I was there. With lots of Sand Martins, Swallows and House Martins over the water, it was difficult to keep track of at times. The Black Tern is a holarctic species, but in Europe it is a more common breeder further east. Apparently they did used to breed in the UK, but now are passage migrants that turn up regularly on inland waterbodies such as Pennington Flash.

Unfortunately, the Black Tern didn't want to come close!

I didn't check the spit too thoroughly but did notice a Common Sandpiper and several Oystercatchers. Two Greylag Geese also flew overhead, and there was a third bird on the canal.

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