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