A Black Tern showed up on Longham Lakes this morning, showing superbly on Longham Reservoir North among the Black-headed Gulls. Paul Wilkins got this awesome picture:

It’s a very late migrant, and the still obvious neck ring and scalloping on the wings shows that it is a juvenile/immature. Let’s hope it gets to West Africa. By the way, thanks to Paul and also to Chris Parnell, who texted me about this bird.

Yesterday, 31st October 2011, I did a full count of all the birds on both reservoirs. To be honest, there wasn’t much to report, except that Wigeon have increased to 51, the highest total so far this autumn. Surprisingly, Gadwall have slipped from 44 a month ago to only 8 yesterday. One notable feature was the numbers of gulls, with 250 Black-headed Gulls, 11 Herring, 4 Common and, surprisingly, 3 Mediterranean Gulls; I say “surprisingly” because Med Gulls have always been scarce on this site in the autumn. Other bits and bobs included 8 Skylarks (7 migrants, 1 singing) and a flock of 13 Black-tailed Godwits over.

Apologies for such a tardy report, but Chris Parnell managed to see an adult winter Little Gull at Longham on 23rd October. Once

again it was on Longham Reservoir North. Interestingly, Little Gulls have been seen here twice before before in
November.

So, two classic “Longham birds” with 10 days of each other!