We had not seen a Caspian Tern for ages and as this one is less than an hour away we decided to go… fine and sunny at home but when we reached Rudyard it was torrential rain… indeed we went away and visited Sainsbury’s in Leek before going back when the weather calmed down. There was quite a bit of flooding on the roads just to make life interesting. Anyway the Tern was sitting in the middle of the mud with Black-headed Gulls but was distant. Indeed when it went to sleep all you could see was the rear of its black nape and it looked like a huge BHG asleep!
On thing of note was what I took to be large round pebbles stuck in the mud on the shore of the reservoir, were in fact thousands of shellfish shells… I assume they are Freshwater Mussels but I might be wrong….
GoneBirding 