Sandwich terns coming north

Since our sighting in Namibia in February we have had 3 more sightings as the terns start to move North to breed. Our first came from Lanzarote (EDB) in early April followed 20 days later by another bird sighted in the Netherlands (EAS). EAS was also seen on the 9th of May at the same site in the Netherlands, suggesting that it may be breeding nearby. There are no sandwich terns breeding in this part of the Netherlands, so it will be interesting to see if this bird remains in the area or turns up elsewhere.
EAS photographed in the Netherlands – Fred Visscher 20/4/2011
So far we have had 70 re-sightings of 200 colour ringed individuals. Nine of these were outside of the UK. We have also had a recent recovery of a sandwich tern ringed as a chick in 2006 on the Ythan Estuary that was recovered on 31st of March in ICELAND. This is the first UK recovery of a sandwich tern in Iceland.