This year has been very thin for lifers. I've got one (white-crowned sparrow) and gone for and missed one (black-winged kite) but otherwise i've been away or not had the chance to add to my UK life list, currently at 407. So when the chance came I decided I ought to get out and go for one. The bird in question was a Forsters tern which should be in the USA where I have seen them before. I should caveat this though with the fact that this bird has been around the south-west for a couple of months, commuting between Brownsea Island and other spots mainly around Poole harbour. My excuse for not going has been that it had been very difficult to pin down. Now though it had developed a routine of being seen in the gull and tern roost at Arne on the edge of Poole harbour. A very early start had me at the reserve at 6.15 and after very quick coffee and an even quicker walk I got to Shipstal beach to check out the roosting birds.
The morning wasn't exactly sun sparking off the water and a rather cold wind was keeping the gulls heads down. I got my 'scope set up and started scanning from left to right. Now sometimes you can go through a flock of birds multiple times to work out the location, or not, of your target. Sometimes luck is on your side and the first bird I looked at was interesting. Tern, tick. Smallish size, tick. No black crown, tick. Piratical patch over its eye, tick. Within a minute of scanning I had the bird.
Forster's tern is a marsh dwelling species. It can be found either in freshwater, brackish or saltwater. It is often found over shallow open water deep in the marsh. Main habitats are marshes, estuaries, islands, salt marshes and marshy areas surrounding lakes and streams so it is very happy here! For the next hour I had the bird to myself. It spent most of the time preening but was flushed by a passing boat and settled almost out of sight on the far side of the muddy outcrop.
Most of its companions were black-headed gulls with sandwich and a few common terns mixed in as well. By now I had been joined by four other birders and managed to get all but one of them onto it before it flew off into the estuary to fish. The weather was getting worse and a band of rainy squalls was passing over the coast. We were in a totally exposed spot so it wasn't very pleasant. I was sticking it out hoping to get better views of it in flight but an hour passed and we had no sign of it. I was getting ready to pack up when all the birds lifted off the estuary. This is normally a sign of a raptor around and we got onto a peregrine falcon a long way off harrying the waders. Too far for photos but through 'bins and 'scopes we saw it bring down a wader which fell into the water. Before the peregrine could return and get it a greater black-backed gull had spotted an opportunity and was closing in on the wader in the water. At that moment I glanced up and saw a distinctive shape heading towards them.
A bird normally associated with Scotland, white-tailed sea-eagles were released on the Isle of Wight a few years ago and are now breeding on the south coast. This "flying barn-door" was almost certainly one of the IOW birds and it was homing in on the spot where the wader had come down.
It was clearly not popular with local birds including a pair of oystercatchers who harried it away from their territory.
It was a long way off still and even with a bird this size these are realy cropped-in photos. As I continued to follow it with my camera it stooped down onto the water and came up with a wader in its talons.
It's pretty hard to tell but it seems to be a godwit going on the beak length and there were certainly a lot of them around. The eagle took it over to a nearby island, much to the consternation of the local shelducks, and we could see it starting to rip the bird apart. No more than a snack for a bird this size but a good bit of opportunism in its part.
About 10 minutes later after presumably finishing its meal it flapped off lazily towards the woods. With the rain setting in I decided enough was enough and packed up my gear and headed back to the car. Not a bad day at all. A lifer giving itself up very easily and a brilliant bit of interaction. Good craic from the birders on site added to the day which was rounded off with a quick trip to Portland bill to year tick yellow-legged gull, Balearic shearwater and arctic skua so all in all very satisfactory. With Autumn migration not far away lets hope it presages some more rarities coming in.
