Friday, April 20, 2012
Greger and I took a walk from the wetlands car park this evening. Almost at once we saw our first tern of the year, hunting insects under rapidly darkening skies. The flight struck me as being rather floaty, without the swift power and nifty turning of the common tern; while the bird lacked the front-heavy look of a common. The tail streamers were hard to see, looking rather tatty but possibly a bit too long for common.
In profile, the forehead has a steep appearance, while the underparts are grey. The black cap has a "skullcap" look, and seems (at least from a distance) to reach the bill without any noticeable white gap.
I'll look for the tern again tomorrow; but I'm going to put it down as an Arctic. A few swallows, my first house martin of the year and a possible sand martin were flying upstream. Then the rain came down and we hurried back to the car.