Tuesday 9 August 2016

Bird of the year thus far - ROSEATE TERN























It was way back on 2nd May this year that this beautiful adult ROSEATE TERN made landfall on Wilstone Reservoir. I had been in Kent when it arrived, waiting for the Rufous Turtle Dove in Otford to appear, but after a pensive hour or so drive, connected with many others that evening. It remained until dusk and was still present the following morning, when unfortunately it succumbed to ill health. It was a ringed individual - 44BK - and it transpired that it had been ringed as a nestling on Rockabill Island, County Dublin (Ireland) on 12 July 2012 (per Steve Newton). My good friend Tony Hukin kept the corpse and had the bird mounted for posterity. It represented perhaps the first record for the reservoirs, following a report with little information at Wilstone in May 1972

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