As the final hours tick away before 2015 passes into history, I wanted to take a quick tour through some of the things that have stood to me this year before we get stuck into 2016.
Firstly, let's have a look through this years seabird breeding season. As many of you will remember, we had several big storms push through the Solent at the peak of the nesting season this year, spelling disaster for eggs and chicks on the lower parts of the shore. Nevertheless, despite many failures, the general outcome of the year was alright. Our troubled little terns managed to fledge a total of 37 young across the eastern Solent despite the big set back in Langstone caused by an abandonment of all but 7 nests during storm conditions in early June. Without a doubt, the big success for little terns this year was their re-colonisation of Chichester Harbour and their most productive year there since the 1970's. After some years of effort, it does now feel that they're gaining a positive momentum locally and we're already gearing up to give them the best chance of continuing this in 2016.
Our local Sandwich Tern colony are also continuing to recover after reaching a historic low of 6 nests in 2013. We've now had two increasingly successful years in a row with 2015 seeing almost 100 nesting pairs and a boom of 70 fledglings. Although Sandwich Terns are notorious for swapping nesting sites en-masse, hopefully they'll come back again in 2016 and do even better.
Above: Adult and fledgling Sandwich Terns on the Solent shoreline. (Photo by Dawn Thompson).
Despite these successes, 2015 saw another dreadful year for Common Tern productivity on the eastern Solent. Although most managed to keep their nests safe during the storms, many chicks were noticeably seen being predated by Mediterranean Gulls in Langstone Harbour this year (as well as the occasional Black-headed Gull) although the Chichester Harbour colony fared better. We'll be looking into this closely in the year ahead. With Mediterranean Gull numbers continuing to increase in the UK, our understanding of how they interact with our other native species will only become more important in the years ahead. There are quite a few factors at work here however (for example, the delayed gull breeding season caused by the storms) and there is certainly a much bigger picture we'll need to assemble.
Across the eastern Solent, we've been carrying research this year to further understand what's happening inside our seabird colonies. Perhaps the most interesting project we've been working on is one with Natural England to record what young terns are being fed locally and how much they typically need on a daily basis. It's still in progress but I look forward to sharing it with you in due course.
Above: Research in progress.
On a global scale, for me, 2015 will be the year we realised just how far our seabird populations have fallen and how inundated with plastics our oceans have become. A study published in June revealed that 70% of our global seabird population has disappeared since 1950. In just one human generation, a decline of some 230 million birds, from Penguins to Terns and everything in between has taken place. To quote one of the authors; "“Seabirds are particularly good indicators of the health of marine ecosystems, when we see this magnitude of seabird decline, we can see there is something wrong with marine ecosystems. It gives us an idea of the overall impact we’re having.” On the same note as this, this year we started to realise how much plastic is entering our oceans, with current predictions suggesting that by 2025, there will be 1 tonne of plastic in the ocean for every 3 tonnes of fish. The consequences of this for our seabirds hit home in another study published in September estimating 90% of seabirds world wide have ingested plastic. Clearly, there's a lot of work to be done in 2016 if we're going to change this.
Above: Plastic on the Langstone Harbour shoreline after a storm (Photo by Dawn Thompson).
Lastly, 2015 has been a variable one for weather. As noted earlier, the breeding season this year saw three major storms pass through the Solent, bringing with them storm surges and torrential rain, pretty much exactly the weather that nesting seabirds could do without. As those of you who currently have daffodils flowering in your lawn will appreciate, it's also been an exceptionally mild year. On a wider scale, 2015 has been the warmest year in recorded history. What the future holds in this regard is something I would not personally venture to estimate, but it looks likely that our wildlife is going to face some large climatic challenges in the years ahead. How we can help them cope with these changes both on and off the reserves is something we're considering on a continual basis. We've already done some things, like raising the shingle in some places to prevent nests being washed away in storm surges, and we are continuing to monitor the rich habitat here as the seasons progress. One thing is for certain, 2016 will have some weather surprises in store for us.
Above: Oystercatcher Eggs inundated by a storm surge.
With an assortment of challenges to face, 2016 is sure to be a busy one but I'm looking forward getting started. With spring just around the corner and a new breeding season heading our way, anything can happen and just about everything is possible. We're aiming to offer more opportunities than ever before to get involved in the coming 12 months and I look forward to updating you on this in due time. In the meantime, I'd like to wish you all a great 2016, let's make it one to remember.