Whiskered Tern over New Diggins.
Damn and blast , but i kind of thought it would not hang around to long , anyhow i made my way down to the sea which was my original plan anyway , as i arrived some birders were heading back to there cars and kindly informed me the Whiskered Tern had been relocated at New Diggins , wow only 5 mins from where i was standing , so of i shot and headed there , and within minutes of arriving i was soon on this great looking bird , its the 2nd Whiskered Tern i have seen in Britain and both have been in Kent , the 1st one was at Stodmarsh and yet again i turned up not even knowing it was there !
Two more record shots of the Whiskered Tern.
I watched this bird for approx: 1 hour noting all the key features , it really is a fine bird ,from here i went back to the sea an added male and female Black Redstart to my year list and i had a flock of 27 Whimbrel fly over head , the sea was very quite , i only added 50 Common Scoter, 1 Red-t-Diver and 2 Gannets to my days totals.
The " patch " held about 150 Common Terns and 1 very smart Arctic Tern , i then decided to check out the site where the Purple Herons had been seen of late , i spent nearly 2 hours there and bumped into the original finders of the Tern , i year ticked a fine Hobby and then my patience was rewarded with although very brief an appearance of the Purple Heron , it basically flew up from the reed bed and then dropped back down again, one of the other birders present did see it in flight abit earlier , so all in all a good days birding at my favourite area to bird in Kent , of note there were hundreds of hirundines and Swifts about today just a bit surprised there were no reports of any Red Rumped Swallows in Kent today.
