One good tern
… deserves another (sorry!).
AND along our coasts, in recent years, two outstanding ‘new’ species have been discovered, and found to be increasing in their frequency.
They are both largish terns, with yellow, or, in one case, sometimes orange bills, and are always a joy to see.
The first of these two species to occur off our coasts was the lesser crested tern, ever so slightly smaller than the closely related Sandwich tern, a common nesting species which has several large colonies dotted around the Spanish coastline.
It differs from that species in having a large yellow bill, which tends to be reddish orange in the breeding season.
Its closest habitual breeding area to us is the coast of Libya, but it is a widespread species, with three subspecies, one breeding down the east coast of Africa, another as far afield as Indonesia and Australasia.
I first encountered lesser crested tern on rocks off Algeciras, in Cádiz province, in 1997, and subsequently saw another passing through the Straits a year or two later.
I was subsequently to learn that the Libyan nesting birds all tend to migrate through the Straits and winter off the west coast of Africa.
Obviously a few become more adventurous and now find themselves in one of our coastal lagoons or harbours (Torrevieja harbour has been a much-favoured site in recent years).
The occasional tendency to hybridise with Sandwich terns has been noted.
The other yellow-billed tern is the elegant tern – slightly larger than the Sandwich tern and possessed of a long, dagger-like yellow bill.
This is a bird whose presence here is rather more surprising than that of the lesser crested. The elegant tern has a very restricted breeding range off the coast of Guatemala, so that it must have a remarkable tendency to wander, as it has become a fairly frequent visitor to European coastal areas, having been recorded in France, Belgium, Ireland and Britain as well as here in Spain, where I was fortunate enough to see a pair at El Pinet.
On the subject of El Pinet, that is a place that should be on everyone’s itinerary, as spring progresses, as there is sure to be an abundance of terns and gulls breeding on the stony islands there, and many species will be in evidence.
A telescope will be an advantage.