2003 Report

2004 Report

2005 Report

COMMON TERN Sterna hirundo
Increasingly common passage and summer visitor and uncommon breeder.

Last year’s Report suggested a possible downturn in the abundance of this species locally. The records for 2006 rather confirm this, or possibly indicate less coverage of the locations where birds were usually regular.

Whatever the reason, apart from two juvenile birds on passage at Warley Moor Reservoir on 28th July (the final sighting), the remaining eight records all came from Otley Wetland, and most of these clearly refer to the regular breeding pair. These had returned by at least 2nd May (and may well have been the birds seen on 26th April), and raised one young. Numbers were augmented only on 28th June, when a party of four birds passed through.