Saturday, 30 August 2014

Unprecedented numbers of terns at Hayle Estuary

Yesterday at Hayle there were in excess of 2000 terns, the majority being Common Tern.  We also saw 16 Black Tern, 3 Roseate Tern, a few Arctics and Sandwich plus a handful of Little Tern.  These numbers are unprecedented.  In 40 years of birding in Cornwall, I have never seen such numbers.  To see all six British terns in one evening is also an event.  The weather played a part but also St Ives Bay is good for sand eel at the moment so I'm guessing that the feeding environment is good.

Below are some of the images I took last night: