It's No Picnic

This afternoon there was a small group of sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis)  congregating on tidally exposed rocks just east of Kinghorn, Fife.  These are adults but just over half of them were juveniles.

These adults are starting to moult into their winter plumage. Their foreheads are black in summer and white in winter.

Amongst them was one adult wearing a Darvic leg ring bearing the legend EPD in white letters on a red background (see 'Extra'). I have tracked it down to having been ringed by the Grampian Ringing Group and have reported it to them.  I will post an update if I get any interesting data back from them.

[EDIT]
Update 08/05/2023
I'd almost given up hope. Spotted and reported on 25/07/2022 and finally received a reply on 08/05/2023.
It was ringed on the Ythan Estuary as an adult bird in 2011.
It returned to the Ythan area every summer until 2018, then it went AWOL until this sighting.

I am assuming its regular mate died  and it has either taken up a nomadic solo existence, or it has got a new life and a new partner in the Forth estuary.  I'll have to keep a look-out this summer, though it is unlikely to return to the same rocky tidal outcrop at a time that I visit.