Arctic Tern

Fairly common passage migrant, mainly coastal but there is a regular inland passage in spring. Has bred.

 

 

                             Arctic Terns:  left, adult at Barton Pits April 2005 and centre, juvenile October 2007 (Graham Catley); right, adults at Kirkby GP May 2012 (Russ Telfer). 

Arctic Tern was thought to have bred sporadically in Lincolnshire in the past and in the Atlas period there was one instance of confirmed breeding at Frampton Marsh in 1980. There has been no evidence of breeding since then. Although the BTO Atlas 2007 -2011 shows it breeding in low numbers in tern colonies on the north Norfolk coast, the next nearest county it breeds in any numbers in is Northumberland.  Flocks of up to 100 are reported widely at inland waterbodies from mid-April through to late May. Autumn passage from mid-July through to October is mainly coastal.

Nestlings ringed at colonies on Anglesey and in Northumberland have been recovered in the county and there is a record of a Danish-ringed nestling in June 1982 found dead a month later in July at Gibraltar Point NNR.