Forster's Tern at Arne RSPB With Honey Buzzard "Afters"

The first summer Forster's Tern at Arne in Dorset has been on my radar for quite some time now. What was presumably the same bird was first seen back in April at Bingham Reservoir in Somerset where it spent a few hours sitting on a buoy before flying off. It then turned up in the Poole Harbour area where it gave birders the run-around until the end of May without ever settling down to a predictable pattern of behaviour. Given how relatively low the odds of connecting were, I didn't bother trying for it at this time. After that it all went quiet for a while. However, towards the end of July it started being reported more regularly from one location in the Harbour to the point where I reckoned that it was pretty reliable. The only trouble was that I was rather busy at work. Therefore, it wasn't until this weekend that I finally found a window of opportunity to have a go at trying to see it.

The bird was being reported at Shipstal Point on the south side of Poole Harbour on the eastern edge of the RSPB reserve at Arne. Apparently it was roosting there with some Sandwich Terns each evening. The best times to see it were either first thing in the morning or last thing at night with the morning seemingly the most reliable. Now, these days sunrise it at around 5:45 am which would make for a pretty early start from Oxford. Therefore I decided to book an Air Bnb and to travel up the previous evening, ready for a dawn raid the next day. At the last minute I realised that at only 2.25 hours from Oxford, I could in fact head off at 4pm and be there in time for the evening roost thereby having two goes at seeing the bird, once for the evening roost and then for the next morning as well. So it was that I headed off at 4pm down the A34 into the tail end of Storm Antoni where I had to drive through very tricky torrential rain for a good part of the journey. Despite this, I made reasonable time and so it was that at around 6:15 pm I pulled into the almost deserted car park at Arne RSPB, donned all my waterproof gear just in case it rained again and partly to counteract the still very strong wind, and yomped off down the path to Shipstal Point. Just as I was heading off news came up on RBA of the bird still being present that evening. That sounded most promising! It was already there for the evening roost so it just had to stick around for the 20 minutes that it was going to take for me to walk down to the beach and, as long as it didn't disappear into an unobservable area, I should get to see it!

I arrived at the beach to find just three other birders there all seemingly looking at the bird and a hurried enquiry put my mind at ease. One obliging fellow birder first let me look through his scope for the tick and even set up my scope so that it was straight on the bird - who could ask for more? The reason for needing to do this was that it was currently tucked up asleep with it's head out of view and if you didn't know which one it was then it would have been pretty tricky to pick it out from the 50 odd Sandwich Terns all roosting there. However, every 5 minutes or so it would lift it's head up, have a bit of a stretch and then go back to sleep so that after a short period I started to get some reasonable views. After a while, it did then wake up a bit more and stood up, albeit partially obscured behind a Sandwich Tern, but I was at last able to take some photos of it. However, the sun was shining very brightly and quite low, lighting up these white birds so much that it threw out the exposure of my digiscoping efforts so my results were little more than record shots.

Looking towards to roost from the beach

A "context" photo with the Forster's in the centre of the photo

 

I took some video but the combination of the wind and the harsh lighting meant that it wasn't that great. 

...Having a stretch!

 

...and a couple of zoomed in shots

After about half an hour of watching it, something spooked the flock and about half the Terns suddenly flew up and left, including the Forster's. 

I was lucky enough to click the shutter just as it took off so managed to get this shot

I waited for a little longer to see if it would come back but it didn't while I was there. Still there were plenty of other birds to look at with a few Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew, Redshank, Dunlin, a Whimbrel and lots of Black-headed Gulls to sift through. All in all it was a very picturesque location and, having already seen my target, I was in a contented frame of mind . 

 

Looking towards Poole Harbour from the beach

Finally I decided to leave, and ambled back along the pleasant woodland path to the car. Then it was a quick 20 minute hop back to Wareham where my AirBnB was located. This turned out to be in a nice quiet location where I passed a pleasant evening eating, watching Netflix and getting to know my hosts' two lovely and inquisitive kittens. Finally I turned in for the night to sleep the deep and contented sleep of a twitcher who had already connected with their target.

My original plan for the next day had been to get there for first light but, having already connected, I decided that there was no need to push myself so instead decided to aim for a more leisurely 7am arrival at Arne. The weather was gorgeous this morning, bright sunshine and only a moderate breeze - such a contrast from yesterday! I arrived to find the car park much more full this morning with more carloads turning up as I was getting ready. I tooled up and headed off along the now familiar walk back to the beach. En route, RBA came up with "still present this morning until 6:20 am when flew off". Hmm, was I was going to pay the price for not getting here first thing? Still, with the pressure off from my connection yesterday I wasn't too bothered. When I arrived there was just a single lady birder there (from Chippenham as it turned out). Being there on her own she had no idea where to look so I explained about where the birds roosted though there were no birds there now. We both lamented the fact that it had been reported as having flown off already. There were plenty of the usual stuff around on the exposed mud flats but only a handful of Sandwich Terns on view loafing on buoys or poles. A Great White Egret on the waters edge was new from yesterday and there were generally more birds about. Quickly, other people started to arrive until there were at least a dozen people there - all somewhat disappointed with the lack of the target Tern.

About half an hour passed with nothing to show for it. An Osprey appeared over the pines on the island opposite us which offered some diversion for a while. Then suddenly our target turned up, hunting actively in the channel in front of us and flying back and forth. Looking into the light, it wasn't so easy to see but it was good enough to make out the bandit mask across the eyes even in flight and there was a palpable sense of relief amongst the assembled group. It had a noticably different jizz from the "angular" feel of a Sandwich Tern. It put on a good display for about 5 minutes as it hunted back and forth along the channel, diving regularly. At one stage we thought it was going to land on a buoy but the Sandwich Tern which was already there wasn't having any of that and chased it off. Eventually the Forster's heading off around the Point and out of sight. We all hurried to the Point and around the corner but couldn't see it. Having now seen it again this morning and with other plans for the morning I didn't feel the need to linger any longer so whilst the others hung around to get more views I opted instead to head back to the car.

The crowd trying to relocate the Tern after the initial sighting

My "other plans" were to stop off in the New Forest on the way home for some Honey Buzzard action - now an annual event in my birding calendar. It was a pleasant hour's drive to my usual location and so it was about 10 am that I wandered out along the familiar path to my usual raptor watch vantage point. On the way I listened out carefully and managed to hear the distinctive scolding call of a Dartford Warbler though I couldn't see it.

I had been hoping for some company during my visit. For the previous two years I'd been blessed with some expert companionship for at least part of my time there but on this occasion I was on my own. It was a very slow start and I did wonder if I might be wasting my time. Initially it was just a couple of Ravens and a lone Buzzard but after a while things seemed to get going with a whole succession of Buzzard sightings and a Sparrowhawk. Finally after a bit less then a hour a pair of Honey Buzzard came into view and I spent a very pleasant five minutes watching them as they circled in the sky for a bit before moving off. Once again I was struck by just how distinctive they looked when seen well. Their jizz was much more agile and "in control" compared to Common Buzzards which had a somewhat "lumbering" air about them by comparison. Also the relatively small head and longer tail of the Honeys meant that there was a "weight to the rear" vibe about them whereas there was more of a "front heavy" feel to Common Buzzard. Having seen my target well I decided to see if I could score an actual view of a Dartford but despite spending quite some time listening and looking I could not winkle one out. 

The birds were generally rather skulking but I did spot a distant family of Stonechats

Eventually I headed back to the car and set the Sat Nav for home. I had a final cup of tea from the flask and a bite to eat before the drive back to Oxford. I arrived back home early afternoon to bask in the warm contented glow of a very successful outing.

Twitcher's Supplement

For people who might be wanting twitching information for visiting the Forster's Tern themselves it's all fairly straight-forward. In the map below, park at the Arne RSPB car park, follow the red trail for "Shipstal" through the woods for about 20 minutes before taking the path down onto the beach. The birds roost along the yellow line and the Forster's was hunting in the channel marked in blue.