Sooty Tern - 2005 - first for Pembrokeshire

Onychoprion fuscatus

Vagrant.

An adult was seen at Strumble Head on the 23rd August 2005.

It was a bright sunny day with a gentle south west breeze and very few birds passing. By about 1000 hours (BST) just two Common Scoters and four Sandwich Terns had been noted by the two observers present, Graham Rees and Adrian Rogers. At 1010 hours a large black and white tern came into view at the one o’clock position flying steadily westwards towards the lighthouse. Viewed through telescopes down to about 400 yards range, descriptions were written immediately after it had gone out of sight. Identified as a Sooty Tern, the descriptions were submitted to the BBRC which found the record acceptable.

An adult Sooty Tern was present around Anglesey from about the 7th to the 26th July 2005 also visiting the Skerries, Dublin until the 15th August and it is presumed that it was this bird which passed Strumble Head, making it the second to be recorded in Wales (the first being in Merioneth in 1909) and the first for Pembrokeshire.

Graham Rees