Today was an emotional day, at least for me. The 2nd Tern chick from the colony on Belpers fledged. I even watched it fly, unbeknownst to it on even them as I should refer to them from the safety of the hide.
It didn’t go far it merely flew up and bathed itself in the saline water in the lagoon, maybe practised a few exploratory dives for fish and then settled back on the island it was born and waited for mother and father to bring it some more food. The chick even though it can fly and has effectively finished the nestling period will still rely on its parents for the next few weeks even months as it is guided back to Africa and is taught to fish for itself. A perilous journey and not one that all chicks make unscathed, it is then a wait of three years for the chick to reach maturity where it will take a mate and produce young of its own, hopefully for over 20 years.
Both the chicks that have fledged are from the Belpers colony on the island on the right hand side as you look from the hide for the benefit of those who have visited in the last eight weeks.I shall try very hard to get some pictures of these birds in the next week or so, so all can see how much they have grown in the last five weeks.
It’s been some journey; they have battled through scepticism and disbelief from me at the sheer lateness of the attempt, the disintegrating summer weather, gulls, Kestrels, Marsh Harriers and potential food shortages. As it was the weather held just long enough, the gulls and birds of prey have been discouraged by canes and chick shelters and the feared food failure has never materialised. Even today the food was piling into the colony with good sized Sandeels available.
What the long term ramifications are for the island is unknown. Hopefully these birds will return next year, at least hopefully for the island but since it is more than likely that these where failed breeders from another colony they may still use this colony as first choice. I hope they return I don’t really mind if it is late again however, breeding late is a good strategy as proven by these birds, they are out of sync with the gulls that will predate them and this gives them a much easier ride.
The only remaining question is how many will fledge? Two so far, on Belpers there are 7 or 8 active chicks all who are getting very big I would hope from here that at least 5 fledge including the two or have already won their race. There are around 6 active chicks on Cottage flood but they are still some way behind those on Belpers so I don’t include them in the final analysis just yet, I hope to be proven wrong.