Birdwatch: my close encounter with a little tern

Through my binoculars I spotted one - it was only the third such individual I had seen in SomersetIt was the bird's distinctive movement that made me take a second look. Small and pale, with narrow, swept-back wings and a buoyant flight - reminding me, in the words of the writer Simon Barnes, of a gull that's died and gone to heaven.A glance through my binoculars, and its black crown, white forehead, and custard-yellow bill confirmed that it was a little tern - the smallest of its family, and only the third individual I had ever seen in Somerset. Continue reading...