Today is the Climate Lobby in London, an event organised by the RSPB and The Climate Coalition, enabling ordinary people like you and me to voice their concerns about climate change to their local MP. The challenges of rising sea temperatures and unseasonal weather are particularly pertinent to us here at Langstone Harbour right now. Why? Well if you weigh about 50g (the same as a mars bar) and nest just above the strandline in a barely visible indent called a 'scrape', the wind is gusting at 70 miles an hour and you're trying to protect eggs about the size of a 10 pence piece, the odds are, quite frankly, stacked against you. The little terns took a massive hit during the recent storms, with a loss of almost 90% of the nests in a few short hours, just blown away as most of the female's fearing for their own safety, took the agonizing decision to abandon their nests. Scientist's say with 95% certainty that human activity is the main cause of climate change, the pressure to bear on our fauna is immense as it struggles to adapt, and still it seems that the will to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle in not yet omnipresent or government led. Sadly there are many that will see today's event as nothing more than just another protest, unaware that the effects of climate change are already being felt.
The good news is, against all odds ...... we have little tern chicks! One amazing Mother (I wish I knew who she was) bore the brunt of the storm to ensure her brood of 3 hatched and she is not alone. A handful of parents sat tight and braved the lashing wind and rain to protect their nests, what tenacity.
Egg teeth clearly visible on these newly hatched little tern chicks
We are delighted to report that the Sandwich terns are doing well. Their fishing habits seem very different to that of the little terns who tend to stay within 1km of their breeding grounds. The sandwiches go further afield for their food, I usually see them in the early evening, a few miles from Langstone Harbour at Southsea beach and count them back like squadron's of spitfires returning from a foray! Although quite similar in size to black-headed gulls, their streamlined wings and atypical head down flight, constantly scanning for food gives them away in the air. All terns are elegant birds, unlike their burly neighbours, the gulls. Seeing them sitting together on the shoreline highlights their differing physique's. In aviation it would be the equivalent of Concord parked next to an Antonov, or Thunderbirds 2 next to Thunderbirds 3 (for those of you who know what I'm talking about). Sporting a slim body and long narrow wings, they are built to fly and built to plunge-dive. Airbourne in the blink of an eye after a plunge, their dive is shallow as they seek their food within a few centimeters of the waters surface and their prowess in the air is impressive as they twist and turn with the ease of a swift or a swallow. Peculiarly, resting Sandwich terns have a habit of facing the same direction, like terracotta soldiers all in a row, head's stock still as though scanning the horizon, or deep in thought (though probably neither) giving them an air of zen like calm or intellectual superiority as in the picture below (I've a confession, this photograph was taken last year, just look at those beautiful fledgling's)
2 sandwich tern youngsters in the centre of the picture
At the oyster beds on Hayling Island the juxtaposition has changed somewhat. The black-headed gulls faced 2 storm surges in as many weeks and although many of them had tried to re-nest a second time a significant number seemed to give up, deciding 'third time? no thanks' leaving space for the common terns, who start later, to move in. Barring predation (as their main threat now) there is the potential for a bumper crop of chicks - so watch this space - in fact why not go down to the oyster beds and watch them for real. For me it's an injustice that the common terns are always in the shadow of their arctic cousins whose monumental pole to pole migration tends to steal the limelight. Records of common terns indicate, a nevertheless impressive range, with birds ringed in Britain or Ireland regularly making it to the far north of Norway and the southern most tip of South Africa, one even turned up in south-eastern Australia, so let's not take for granted their undeniable migratory prowess and enjoy them too.
A common tern fishing
Site Manager, Wez, who spend's much of his life patrolling in the boat, is called upon occasionally to offer assistance to sail boats without wind, or paddle boarders without a paddle. But the rescue of Milo, a very old Irish setter who'd swam too far out in the harbour and got into difficulty, is the zenith for me. Milo's frantic owner, having already been declined assistance (can you believe it) by another boat user, alerted Wez who sped into action and together they managed to find Milo and drag him onto the boat. The strong current was just too much for this old boy, exhausted and disorientated he was close to drowning and would never have made it back to shore. Way to go Wez, you saved his life.
Wez keeping a watchful eye on the breeding birds
It's all go here at Langstone Harbour and we are looking forward to giving you more concrete news about the tern's soon. We can't mitigate against the weather, but hopefully the worst is now over and we and the birds can enjoy the summer ahead.