Dipped the Sooty Tern at Sizewell

This morning I was sat at home pondering over driving to Portland for the very probable Yelkouan Shearwater that's been reported and seems to be backed up by decent images which should help it get accepted. As I had just convinced myself to give it a go news came through of a Sooty Tern at Sizewell that had settled twice on the far rig and I thought this looked like a pattern developing and a real  chance of me seeing the bird so I set of to Suffolk instead of Dorset saving me around 140 miles in the round trip.  I arrived about half an hour after the bird had flown south but I assumed the bird would return as before to rest up on the rig with the breeding Kittiwakes. After three hours and with no sign of the bird the small crowd had all but dispersed so I decided to leave too and save my life tick for another day.

The small crowd at Sizewell

I picked up a year tick with two Whimbrel flying over calling and enjoyed watching a pair of Peregrine around the power station but otherwise the highlight was a nice long chat with a Kent birder named Raphael as we swapped stories of more successful days out. I find myself still contemplating a trip to Dorset in the morning though but lets see how the evening works out first.

Year list now 228