A Common Tern

This morning at 06:40am a common tern, swallow-like and red-beaked, flew along the Kennet loop, eastwards past Reading prison.

I have occasionally seen common terns of the Kennet before. Once, I was with Zoe when one did a spectacular dive into the river and then flew up and off again.

Update on Wed 2005-07-06 by Tristram Brelstaff

On the following Sunday (June 24th) Zoe and I saw a lone common tern flying up and down the middle lake in Reading University grounds.  We saw it dive several times - the lake seems to provide better hunting than the river Kennet.  Each time it dived it did a sort of twist in the air before dropping down to the water.

A few days later I again saw the tern over the Kennet before 7am.  I suppose it is possible that all three sightings were of the same bird.