Arctic Tern
A regular passage visitor to the reservoir, which can be wrongly identified as the similar looking Common Tern. Views of these birds are sometimes limited & therefore are recorded as 'Commic' Terns meaning Common or Arctic Tern.
04/05/46 - Single bird, reported as Commic Tern
06/10/55 - Single bird
20/08/64 - Single bird
24/08/65 - 2 birds
15/08/68 - 4 birds
10/09/70 - 2 birds, reported as Commic
26/08/71 - Single bird, reported as Commic
07/09/74 - 6 birds, reported as Commic
07/09/78 - 3 birds
30/09/82 - 16 birds
05/05/84 - 17 birds. Record count to date
20/08/91 - 2 birds, an adult & a juvenile
09/09/93 - 2 birds, seen again on 10/09
20/08/96 - 2 birds, an adult & a juvenile
29/09/96 - Single adult, reported as Commic
30/04/99 - 2 adult birds, flew through briefly
22/09/99 - 3 birds. A single bird was seen on 30/09
27/09/00 - Single bird, reported as Commic
22/08/04 - Single bird, reported as probable Arctic
27/09/06 - Single bird, stayed 2 days
27/05/09 - Single bird
27/08/09 - Single Arctic with a Commic tern
27/08/10 - 1 probable Arctic
2013 - None seen this year at Chard yet it was an exceptional year for these birds in Somerset, particularly in April.
2014 - No definite sightings, but 15-20 Commic Terns were seen briefly on 01/09. (However 3 that remained to be identified were Common)
2015 - No sightings this year
2016 - No sightings this year
2017 - No sightings this year
2018 - No sightings this year
2019 - No sightings this year
2020 - No sightings this year
2021 - No sightings this year
2022 - No sightings this year