Well, listen to this one! Here I was, bog-standard Thursday, in the office. You know the drill: sipping lukewarm tea, coding away at my screen. Suddenly, the birdwatcher’s equivalent of a small lottery win pops up on my break: a White-Winged Black Tern spotted at our very own Brockholes Nature Reserve. Now, that’s not something you see every day in Lancashire!
So, 5pm swings around, and I’m off like a rocket. Scarfed down a quick dinner and bolted to Brockholes faster than you can say ‘rare avian species’. When I arrived, the place was buzzing. A gaggle of fellow birdwatchers were huddled at the hide, all eyes on the sky. The air was practically humming with excitement, the kind of thrill you just can’t replicate.
Not a minute too soon, this little rare beauty flew right in front of the hide. An absolute stunner, this one. Up until that point, I didn’t even know White-Winged Black Terns existed, let alone imagine I’d see one at my local reserve. It was as if I’d found a unicorn.
Now, this Tern, it had a thing for this specific rock out on the lake. Couldn’t seem to get enough of it. Resting, taking off, and swooping back down – a spectacular dance.
I was armed with my Nikon Z50, my trusty Sigma 150-600c Lens and a 1.4 Teleconverter. Trust me when I say it was like trying to photograph a lightning bolt. This bird was a live wire!
The first-ever sighting at Brockholes, and it’s a hyperactive little mite. So I dialled in fast shutter speed, over 1/2500s. The aperture was set between f7.2 and f9. The goal? Keep the whole of this quicksilver flyer in focus. It was the golden hour, the light divine but cloudy. I left ISO on auto and went with a ‘spray and pray’ approach, like throwing a handful of darts and hoping one sticks.
And stick they did! Four magnificent shots, each one capturing the White-Winged Black Tern’s fiery energy and wild spirit. What a night to remember!
You might be curious, what’s all this fuss about a White-Winged Black Tern? Well, these are rather scarce in the UK. They breed in freshwater marshes across Europe and Asia but are only seen in the UK as passing migrants, mostly along the east coast. This makes my encounter even more special. What’s more, they undergo a dramatic change in plumage between winter and summer, making them a marvel for birdwatchers and photographers alike.
So there you have it, a normal Thursday transformed into an extraordinary adventure. That, my friends, is the wild, unpredictable, and wholly captivating world of birdwatching and wildlife photography. Always expect the unexpected!
Keep those binoculars handy. Who knows? Your own White-Winged Black Tern might just be around the corner. And if you’re as lucky as I was, you’ll have a camera to immortalise the moment.
Until the next sighting!
