Arctic Tern at Hillarys

Bird number 248 on my life list is a successfully twitched Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) that has somehow found its way to Hillarys Boat Harbour.  Arctic Terns are rare visitors here and this particular bird has been hanging around for most of the week.  John Graff and I saw it in the late afternoon as it meandered its way around the harbour walls amongst the Silver Gulls.  The bird was quite cooperative and performed several close flybys for us before perching on a jetty post.

I took a lot of photographs but the fading light (and weather closing in) has meant that not a lot are very sharp.  Thankfully they are good enough for me to convince myself of what I am looking at!  Below is the best photograph of a rather ordinary bunch that I took.



Only two more birds to go and I hit the magical 250!