10 June, 2017 Church Norton

With news breaking that the Hampshire male Elegant Tern had re-located to the tern island at Church Norton during the morning, so we decided to give it a go as of course it is the first record for Sussex. We had seen one about 20 years ago in Southern Ireland and have seen them also abroad.
We arrived at Church Norton around 13.20 hrs only to hear that it had flown off about 5 minutes earlier. We met up with RJF and JK who also had just missed it, but after about 40 minutes it was picked out on the spit standing with several Sandwich Terns. Several times flew around tern island, and although it was always distant, it was nice scope views. I tried to take a few pictures but just managed a few very poor record shots. Good numbers of Mediterranean Gulls, Little Terns, and both Common and Sandwich Terns were also seen.

 

 

Some very poor record shots of the male Elegant Tern at Church Norton.

Elegant Tern taken by James Packer