Common tern

22/03/08 Common tern, Sterna hirundo (prob sub sp. longipennis), seen at the Manawatu Estuary

Interestingly, this common tern was found by Sav (and then later, independently, by Phil Hammond) on 22 March 2008. The bird can be seen in the middle left of both photos below, along with the grey plover also seen at this site during the same time. The Manawatu Estuary is a good spot to find this scarce species in New Zealand, with about 30% of the records in the past 10 years coming from here – though this is the first since January 2004. The bird was only seen on one day.