the Black-browed Albatross curse also lifted

 After a rather predictable dip on the two Lincs Beeeaters on Sunday it was back to normal service yesterday bumping into the second Caspian Tern of the month at Barton in every location I seemed to visit starting off with Waters' Edge in the morning then the sailing pit , over Chowder and Far Ings in the afternoon and eventually saw it sitting on the foreshore off the tileyard, my first land bound encounter. 

By evening my phone was flat so put it on charge upstairs; hitting the sack early my wife informed me that the phone had gone off and a casual glance saw a WhatsApp timed at 23:05 from John H saying that the Albatross had been seen at Bempton and Thornwick Bay - after last year's two days and 17 hours https://pewit.blogspot.com/2020/07/two-days-at-bempton.html of frustration I not inclined to assume that it would be there in the morning so didn't set the alarm. Then luck played a strange trick on me - waking up at 04:55 I looked at Birdguides and saw the message Black-browed Albatross Bempton this morning which without my glasses I took to mean now so I had some breaky and packed up and was about to set off when I looked at it again and realised that it meant yesterday morning; oh well I was up anyway so might as well go but with no great urgency. Then approaching Carnaby at 06:30 I get a message that its on the cliffs at Bempton - a strange sense of urgency then ensued! arrived in the car park at 06:50 with few cars and no people to tell me where New Rollup was but a man with a strimmer pointed me in the right direction and after a quick walk, jog, run the 2020 frustration was laid to rest; after initially distant views we moved to Staple Newk and it performed, mainly below us it has to be said, but at close range for what seemed like a long time before flying out to sea. After a long wait it returned along the cliff top, when I should have just watched it pass at 30 feet and 6 feet overhead instead of trying to photograph it - the rest of the day was spent in good company waiting for it to perform again but I left before it did - no complaints no excuses and maybe just maybe I am now making the right decisions. 

big birds are not always easy to see

 another day another story - still writing and images to process - how did I take over 600 today? 

and today's Caspian Tern effort

 in very dull light but the first time I have actually seen it stood - when it catches a fish this size there is little wonder it takes 2-3 hours to digest it - in the course of today saw it on Waters' Edge, over Chowder and Far Ings and on the shore off the tileyard - over the garden next?

Caspian Tern bird 2 better shots

 bird two was again present when I arrived at the sailing pit this morning and was actively chasing both Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls producing a guttural squark as it did so - with some images in duller light the full extent of the immaturity in the wing and tail feathers is more visible - 

Caspian Tern take two

 taking a stroll from home yesterday evening I almost half expected the Caspian tern to be back on sailing pit as it had been ,missing from Yorkshire all day - or so I thought - it caught a fish and flew off west towards Read's island where all the gulls roost; 

this morning Wayne picked it up flying east behind Read's island and towards Baryon where IO was at sailing pit in readiness and it duly arrived so I took a few more images but failed to get it crashing into the pit and catching a fish before it again flew off west - 

So it had found its way back after a week away - but it hadn't because when I looked at the images on the computer not only did it have a subtly different head pattern but although it also had a metal and red ring they were on the opposite legs to the first bird from last weekend - amazingly two different Caspian Terns found within a week in the same place but separately - what are the chances of that? This bird also looks a bit less mature with some grey in some of the tail feathers and lesser coverts --

Moral of the story do not assume the obvious 

June oddments

Banded Demoiselles on an incongruous barbed wire fence, Red-eyed Damselfly, Ruddy Darter, Painted Lady roosting at 22:00 and Roe Deer well after sunset with the new Canon R6