Black Tern at Marshside, Lancashire

October 6, 2010:
A chance visit to Marshside was rewarded with excellent views of a Black Tern hawking for insects over the water. For well over an hour, never settling, it repeatedly quartered a sheltered pool close to the coast road at the northern end of the Reserve. Other nearby areas of more exposed water were ignored, these presumably being insect-free as most appeared to be concentrated at this pool within the lee of an embankment. Each pass the bird made over the water was almost identical, flying firstly into the strong wind and acrobatically picking insects of the water surface before making a long swing back downwind to repeat the process all over again.
















Within the same general area a female Red-crested Pochard fed occasionally on partly exposed weed amongst a group of Shoveler, Gadwall and Mallard.