Goodbye, until next year!

Today we are saying goodbye earlier that usual as the final pair of Little Terns left the area yesterday. It appears that the majority of adults and fledglings have moved up to Baltray, as reports are coming in of colour ringed fledglings that were ringed here at Kilcoole. Most evenings last week there was a roosting flock of around 86 birds at Baltray.

Little Tern Fishing
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty) 

The fencing has been taken down now, as the birds have completely finished nesting for the year and the roosting flock no longer needs its protection either. We would still urge beach goers to keep a careful eye out when walking on the shingle as there are still Ringed Plover chicks hidden amongst the pebbles.

Little Tern chick almost ready to fledge
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

This season didn't go too well for the Little Terns here. Although we started off well, with over 150 nests, it all went downhill from there. Halfway through June we had a troublesome fox who made its way into the colony one night, and helped itself to over 40 nests and countless chicks! At the south colony, a mixture of foxes and human disturbance lead to a complete failure of this colony, which had 35 nests. On top of this all this, there was a shortage of food for the chicks late in the season, this lead to a high mortality rate among chicks, even those close to fledging age. This was a similar story to what was seen on Rockabill and other Tern colonies on the east coast.

Little Tern chicks just after hatching
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

In the end, around 50 Little Tern chicks managed to fledge from the colony, which is significantly below average for this site. Last year there was a staggering 293 chicks fledged! There was also around 20 Ringed Plover chicks fledged from the colony as well, but unfortunately out of the 3 Oystercatcher nests we had, no chicks survived to fledged.

Ringed Plover chicks are very well camouflaged in the shingle
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

We had a total of 126 species of bird seen in the area since the project started back in May, including Hobby, Glossy Ibis, Great White Egret, Cuckoo, Short-Eared Owl, Long-Eared Owl, Red Kite and Great Skua. Apart from the birdlife, we also saw 8 species of Butterfly, including Ringlet and Small Heath. We have also seen Otter, Viviparous Lizard, Harbour Porpoise, Bottle-nosed Dolphin and  a Grey Seal dining on a Ray.

Little Tern bringing in fish for a chick
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

We would like to thank all of our volunteers that helped us throughout the season this year and all of the public who use the beach around the colony for your continued interest and support for this project.

Little Tern attacking a warden!
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

-Paddy and Kevin

Fledglings at Kilcoole

We were sad to say goodbye to Em who had to leave the project at the end of June to go to a new contract. She is off to the South Atlantic to work with Albatrosses on Gough Island. Kevin has now joined the team, moving down from Baltray, which had an unsuccessful year with no Little Terns attempting to breed and has been delighted to begin working on the colony.

We have had our first fledged Little Tern last week, the first chick was seen making short flights inside the colony on the 3rd of July. After many hours of practicing in the relative security of the colony, this little guy built up the confidence and strength to make his first flight out to sea on the 4th of July. Since then, more and more of the chicks have fledged every day. We now see 15-20 chicks roosting with the adult terns and learning how to fish just offshore. The first of our fledglings have started to move off as they are not reliant on their parents for food or protection any longer. These fledglings will fly up and down the coast looking for other potential nesting sites for when they become mature. Once they get the lay of the land they will begin flocking up and heading south to the west of Africa where they will spend their first two years before coming back to breed in 2018.

Little Tern chick almost ready to fledge
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

 Meanwhile, the last of the eggs have hatched, with the final chick hatching on the 7th July. The new chicks have all left their nests now making it difficult for us to monitor them. Our careful patrols reveal that we still have about 15 unfledged chicks that are still under care from their parents. Unfortunately, 1-2 dead chicks were discovered daily during last weeks patrols of the foreshore. These chicks were aged between 3 and 10 days old and had no visible physical damage to the body leading the wardens to believe that they may have starved to death. This has been a constant theme for the past two or three weeks now and one of the reasons why our fledgling numbers are so low this year. The other main reason is due to heavy fox predation on one early morning. This fox is the main reason that the south colony, which hatched 50 chicks, was completely wiped out.

Little Tern flock at roost Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

Despite the predation and lack of food available, the number of Tern chicks that have made it to fledgling stage is still a notable amount. We estimate that at least 40 chicks have already fledged, and possibly another 15 to fledge in the coming weeks.

Little Tern flock dreading Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

-Paddy and Kevin