20th June. Royal Snub

In what is becoming a familiar pattern of late I again managed to dip on another lifer. The Royal Tern was inconveniently mega alerted just as we sat down for a family get together. Forcing me to endure a few hours of anxiety and near heartburn. There's not been many rarities lately that have got the old twitching enthusiasm flowing but this one certainly had the adrenaline well pumped. Fortunately as we were eating close to the Leeds end of the M62 the journey should have been pretty trouble free. Setting off at 17:50 the bird was still present but with a mid evening high tide things weren't looking promising. On arrival it was clear that it had indeed done one (hopefully moving on to the next leg of its Welsh tour) and despite a brief appearance and a spurious claim further west nothing else was seen of it that evening.

Fortunately the journey home was not the downer that I had warned Jo of as I was warmed by the cheerie news of Lady Thatchers continuing stay in Hospital - not long now you wizerned old cow.