White-Winged Black Tern + Black Tern
American Black Tern 
American Black Tern 
Black Tern 
White-Winged Black Tern
White-Winged Black Tern in flightThe day before my Norfolk break a juvenile Black Tern appeared at Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire, nothing amazing there I hear you say but it was then reported as possibly being a bird of the American race. A short while later it was confirmed that it was indeed an AMERICAN BLACK TERN only the 3rd for GB. What was more amazing was that it was present with a juv White-Winged Black Tern and a juv Black Tern! Unfortunately I had no time to get there before dark and was off to Norfolk in the morning. The chances of it staying were remote so I resigned myself to dipping them.
Some how though they were all still present on Thursday morning and so I decided to go for them.
On arrival it was clear that it was a tad windy (near gale force!) and as usual they were at the far end of the causeway and the far side of the reservoir! However I walked up and sat on the slope of the reservoir and was rewarded with amazing once in a lifetime views of 3 species of black tern in 1 scope view! I somehow managed to get some photos of the birds though with the wind and distance they aren't exactly amazing!
Also present with them was a juv Arctic Tern and when walking back to the car I looked overhead for a migrating Osprey but to no avail. That flew over about 2 hours after i'd left! And the journey there and back was enlightened by numerous Red Kites.
News this morning is that all 3 terns have finally left so I was very jammy indeed.
This was my 4th lifer in 4 visits to Farmoor the others being Franklin's Gull, Sabine's Gull and Buff-Bellied Pipit. Any of those in Herts would be nice!
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