BLACK TERN

Many birds are looking particularly good now. This applies to the lovely Black Tern, a passage bird in the UK. They are ‘marsh terns’, at home feeding over freshwater (or seen on the coast). The flight is buoyant and they feed by graceful dips to pick invertebrate food from the water surface. In breeding plumage, they are black-bodied (white undertail) with grey wings, back and tail. A flock of Black Terns dropping in to feed over a gravel pit or small lake is an inland patch-watcher’s small slice of May heaven.