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: