Occupying Tern Territory

The project is now in full swing and the first Little Tern egg was discovered on the 17th May whilst we were completing the construction of the hide, it is a mere five metres from the hide so it will make for nice easy observations. As it has been seven days since the last blog post, there have been many developments in an exciting and sometimes dramatic week. The number of Little Tern nests has risen sharply to the current total of ninety, eighty of which are in the main colony and ten are located in the satellite colony south of the breaches. The best part of this news is that the vast majority of nests are holding a large clutch of three eggs. 

The first Little Tern egg of the season.

On Monday, some time observing colour ring markers in the satellite colony paid off and two Little Terns with green rings (indicative of birds hatched and ringed in Kilcoole) were recorded. The rings' codes read "IEV" and "IHZ" so we have named the birds wearing them; Evan and Hazel. These two have been displaying mating rituals together and we are sure they are about to nest, so I will keep you informed of their progress as the season goes on! Also, later on, when we have trawled through ring records I will be able to elaborate on the history of these two birds and hopefully we might get information from re-sightings made across their migratory flyway between the Irish Sea and western Africa where they spend the winter.

Kilcoole fledglings "Evan and Hazel" have returned and are pairing off.

On Tuesday around midday, a walking group from Bray paid a visit to the site on their way to Birdwatch Ireland's East Coast Nature Reserve in Newcastle. They were keen to learn about the project so we had a good chat about the history, facts and current success of the project and then answered some questions about Little Tern conservation. As the group set off on their departure, one of the walkers, quite keenly, spotted a Ringed Plover chick on the footpath. The one day old chick, had haphazardly wandered away from it's parents in the wrong direction and found itself lost. No sooner than it was discovered, it was replaced within the protective boundary of the colony fence. We watched for a short period and tracked the arrival of an adult, which made it's way to the chick. There seemed to be a brief moment of bonding between the adult bird and the chick, until, thirty seconds later another adult Ringed Plover burst onto the scene and aggressively deterred the pretender. The chick now seemed familiar with the presence of the new bird and scurried underneath it's body. As we watched on we were satisfied that parent and chick had been reunited - but I pondered for a while about the other adult bird, the would have been surrogate, perhaps she had lost a chick too!

Adventurous wanderer - a one day old Ringed Plover chick.

Wednesday began with the welcome arrival of a small flock of migrating Knot to the colony, although they were certainly unwelcome to the Little Terns on sentry duty over their valuable nests, which quickly formed a guard and ushered the visiting flock away. There's no tolerance for occupying Tern territory here!

A new burrow had appeared at the north lagoon a number of days ago and due to it's size, suspicions were building that it may be the work of a small mustelid, namely American Mink! Today those suspicions were confirmed as we watched helplessly as the Mink swam sleekly up the south lagoon, raising much alarm amongst the avian community as it passed by. It then made land and casually sauntered up the shore, disappearing into long grass on the railway sidings only 30 metres from our campsite and no less than 50 metres from the Little Tern colony.

The American Mink is a formidable creature; intelligent and tough, resilient and versatile. It is it's tantalising prowess which has led the American Mink to become one of Ireland's most distained invasive species. It's habit of 'surplus killing' when presented with a bountiful resource of prey makes the species a potent threat to vulnerable ground nesting bird populations, such as our Little Terns. There is no option but to trap it and remove it humanely from the site before it has an opportunity to do any harm!

American Mink photographed at the south lagoon on 22nd May.

Along with foxes, crows, human disturbance and unpredictable weather events, coupled with high tides, the Little Terns have more than their fair share of challenges to reproducing successfully. Scientific studies of Little Tern conservation have shown that in the modern day, at un-protected sites, breeding productivity is not likely to be more than 0.10 (i.e.1 chick reared and fledged per 10 breeding pairs). At kilcoole, the recent (3 -year) trend for breeding productivity is averaging 1.17, that's more than one chick successfully fledged by each  breeding pair. The current team will be working hard during the course of this season to maintain and hopefully increase productivity. As ever we thank the local people for sharing their beach with these fantastic Little Terns and we welcome you to come along and chat to us about the project.

I look forward to bringing news of more nests next time.

Thanks for reading.

Darren.

Returning Terns!

Hello Everyone and welcome to a new season of the Little Tern Conservation Project. As this is my first year on the project I am very excited for what lies ahead over the next three months. Having followed the project for the last couple of years I know there could be turbulent times ahead, here's hoping for more highs than lows! My name is Darren and I will be joining Chris on the day warden duties for the duration of this years project. Some of you may be familiar with Chris as he is returning for his third year to work with the Little Terns. You can find out a bit more about us in the "meet the team" section of the pages menu on the right. A little later, we will also be welcoming some fantastic volunteers who will be coming along to learn more about Little Tern conservation and help us out along the way.

After the initial meet and greets with project managers and various stakeholders, we got to work installing the ever important predator proof fence around the boundary of the main colony. During the work we were able to observe the arrival of returning terns. By the 2nd of May we were able to record a peak count of eight Little Terns. The pioneers from West Africa, leading the charge to cooler, more productive Irish waters. Numbers continued to grow steadily over the next few days, ten, twelve, eighteen, thirty-four, respectively.

By the 6th of May we were experiencing quite stiff northerly winds, which seemed to temporarily halt any further arrivals. A couple of days later the winds had swung around to south-easterlies and on Thursday 9th a high spring tide coupled with Beaufort 5 easterlies, during the night, tore down much of the seaward fencing which had just been erected. The tide had reached far up the beach, completely altering the topography of the shingle from multiple stepped ridges to a more gently sloping gradient and covering seventy-five percent of the area within the fenced boundary. Luckily it was too early for any nests to have been established but a perilous reminder of the challenges faced by breeding Little Terns. With the boundary fence re-established we were able to count about eighty Little Terns, which are beginning to partake in feeding and flight mating rituals.

The breeding season is in full swing now for many other birds too, confirmed by the finding of a Golden Plover nest with a clutch of three eggs, which she wisely chose to lay just 30 cm inside the protection of the boundary fence. Male Lapwings are performing there spectacular aerial acrobatics, in the skies landward of our position, accompanied by their techno sounding cries, to impress a potential suitor.

Dunlin are in resplendent summer plumage, marching up and down the beach and foraging on the mudflats in the tidal lagoon, whilst Shelduck have long since paired up and established territories. With occasional challenges from a subordinate male Shelduck the subsequent combat makes for edge of the seat spectating, both flying up; flapping and pecking furiously. 

Overhead, amidst the crackling calls of Little Terns; Swallows, House and Sand Martins have been busily gathering their fare. On the 8th they were joined for the first time by Swifts. Skylarks too are a welcome distraction, regularly heard in what is surely the most beautiful of all bird song but only occasionally seen fluttering at unfathomable heights. We have also been joined for the past week by a flock of Whimbrel, the coastal fields becoming a staging post on their migration to northern breeding grounds. Somewhat peculiarly, they plot their migration north in stages, stopping off along the way but returning south to Africa for winter in one direct flight. 

In addition to the regularly occurring species and breeding birds on site, in the last few days we have encountered a couple of less likely species, or rarities perhaps in an Irish context. A Pink-footed Goose was observed grazing in the company of our resident Mute Swans and a brief visit was paid to the lagoon by a Ruff.

Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynucus) 

Ruff (Calidris pugnax)

At last count Little Terns were numbering over 120 with more and more arriving everyday. We are all really excited at the prospect of discovering Little Terns with green colour rings, which were previously fitted at Kilcoole. This way we can tell which birds have bred here and successfully navigated the past year. This way we can see which ones really are the returning terns.

It's time to go and build the hide now so we can easily make these observations without disturbing the birds. I look forward to keeping you informed of the progress as the weeks go on.

Regards,

Darren.