Richard Collins: The legendary journeys of the Arctic Tern

From north to south, the Tern encounters more sunlight in a year than any other living thing

The gold medal for the world’s most travelled creature goes to the Arctic Tern.

An unusual seabird has taken up residence in north Co. Dublin. A Least Tern, from North America, has been welcomed by the little terns at their breeding colony in Portrane. 

White plumaged with a black cap, the blackbird-sized visitor closely resembles the local ‘sea swallows’. It flits about noisily, with a sprat in its bill, hoping to offer the fish to a prospective breeding partner as a pre-nuptial gift. That’s a forlorn hope. No suitor of its kind is likely to be available on this side of the Atlantic; the Portrane blow-in is only the second least tern ever recorded in Ireland, or Britain, where one turned up in 1991.