Sooty Tern - accepted record

Onychoprion fuscata

2005 Pembrokeshire Strumble Head, adult, 23rd August 2005 (G. H. Rees, A. Rogers), see also Anglesey.

Initially discovered, though not positively identified, at Rhosneigr on 5th July, this magnificent tropical tern was relocated two days later in the heart of an Arctic Tern S. paradisaea colony on The Skerries, where it delighted a procession of boatloads of visiting birders. On 10th July, the bird moved to the nearby tern colony at Cemlyn Bay, coincidentally the same site that hosted a well-watched Bridled Tern O. anaethetus in July 1988, leaving many observers with a distinct feeling of deja vu. On 12th July, the bird made the short hop across the Irish Sea to the tern colony at Rockabill, Co. Dublin, but, amazingly, by the evening of the same day it was back at Cemlyn, which just goes to show how far our rarities can wander in a day. Thereafter, its appearances proved frustratingly intermittent and it was last reported flying out to sea from Cemlyn on 26th July.

In a final twist to the tale, what was considered probably to be the same bird rewarded seawatchers with a flypast at Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire, in late August. A detailed account of the Anglesey bird was given by Davies (2005). Although these reports take the total number of records of Sooty Tern in Britain to 25, only two others have occurred since the famous exhausted bird found in Northamptonshire in May 1980: one in Kent and East Sussex in July 1984 and another in Fife in July 1989.

(Davies, A. 2005.The Sooty Tern on Anglesey. Birding World 18: 282–288.)

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