17th April 2009

In the morning, walked to Earlswood to meet John Yardley to go to Upton Warren (Worcestershire). Whilst walking along Norton Lane, heard an owl-like call twice from trees but I can't quite remember exactly how it sounded other than that it began with "wr" - certainly wasn't a Tawny Owl.
John brought me back to Earlswood, and from c. 3:50-4:30 pm I saw 4 Common Terns (certainly not like the Arctics I saw at Upton Warren) and 3 Swallows at the lakes.
Back at home I saw "Arctic Tern, Earlswood Lakes" plotted on the BirdGuides BirdMap, and saw that the bird(s) were seen at 5:05 pm, so crazily (I was a bit tired) I cycled back to the lakes hoping to add the species to my Earlswood list. I got there just after 7 pm to see what I thought were 2 Common Terns, though they never rested on the buoys near the causeway and the lighting wasn't good.
M.P. Griffiths

P.S. Thanks to John, I managed 13 lifers (!) at Upton Warren, which were Gadwalls, Shelducks, Avocets, Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plovers, Dunlins, Redshanks, Snipes, Yellow Wagtails, Sedge Warbler(s), Cetti's Warblers, 3 definite Arctic Terns and an adult Little Gull. What a place!