A rollercoaster season so far...

This season has been a bit of a rollercoaster at the Long Nanny tern site. There have been several ups and downs, but the site seems to be doing well at the moment as the rangers work hard to look after the colony of nesting shorebirds.

There were low numbers of all species on site at the start of season, with only 14 pairs of little terns nesting originally. The birds had just settled into the new season and many were happily sitting on eggs when the the first set of spring high tides hit in late May. This had a massive impact on site, washing away at least 200 Arctic tern eggs. The little tern nests were already raised onto fishing crates and pallets but still needed to be rescued several times. One tide washed away most of the site and found the team wading into the sea to rescue fishing crates and pallets. Seven pallets ended up on the other side of the burn and the team spent a manic hour rescuing the various bits of site and rapidly rebuilding all the nests before carefully replacing the eggs. After several days of being battered by tides and a period of poor weather afterwards, we were left with only three little tern nests at the Long Nanny.

After a weeks break many of the pairs started to lay new nests and more birds appeared bringing the site to a peak count of 38 little tern nests and a full count of the site recorded 1800 Arctic tern nests.

© Ptolemy McKinnon

Poor weather and another set of spring tides means we have lost a few nests since, but at the moment the site is doing well.

There are 24 little tern nests and 11 chicks, most newly hatched. Our first Arctic fleglings have been seen and so far two ringed plover fledglings have been spotted. So despite a number of predators and patches of poor weather some of the chicks are making it through the precarious few weeks before they can fly. We all have our fingers crossed that the rest of the season goes well!

The Extremes of Predator Proofing

Every season the rangers at the Long Nanny tern site battle a variety of predators in their attempt to protect the birds that nest there. Each year is different and at one point or another, the site has suffered at the hands of most shorebird predators. For the last two seasons stoat predation has had a large impact on the productivity of the colony and despite a lot of chasing and head-long trips over Marram tussocks, ranger activity has done little to deter them.

Volunteers constructing the fence

 

We have been slowly improving our fencing on site to protect against mammalian predators. Work in 2016 seemed to have an effect on larger mammal predation and this year we have started to experiment with fencing against smaller mammals. Our team of volunteers have had to get creative and we have come up with a chicken wire fence line, with fold over top to stop climbing. It may not be stoat proof but we hope it will at least be a deterrent (and a learning curve for the rangers).

The constantly evolving fence line

We are also trying to improve our equipment on site to increase visibility during night shifts and have even contemplated scare crows to reduce fox predation. In the calm of pre-season preparations it all seems a bit bizarre, but as soon as June arrives and the predators become apparent, in depth conversations about how reflective a scare crows eyes should be and whether playing Radio 1 or Radio 4 is a greater deterrent become as common as commenting on the weather (which we do a lot of as well!).

The Long Nanny tern site will start on the 5th of May and visitors are welcome to come to the viewing platform and take part in some of these strange conversations with the rangers. We do ask that all dogs are kept on leads and that diversion signs from the beach are followed to prevent disturbing the nesting birds.