I'm more than a little surprised to see work ongoing still on the islands on the various pools.
Yesterday it was the main pool by the visitor centre and today it was the island on Back Saltholme. Surely it's too late for this work to be done, if not verging on illegal?
The Black-headed Gulls are already nesting with eggs at Paddy's Pool as are at least one pair of Avocets. I'd be very surprised if they hadn't already got nests on Back Saltholme as well - prior to today at least. Canada Geese appear to be nesting on the islands as well. Little Ringed Plover, another schedule one species have been on Back Saltholme and the main pool. Elsewhere locally they're already nesting. A pair of Common Tern were at Paddy's Pool this morning as well.
I hope no further work is planned for Paddy's Pool especially.
Thanks Ian for your concern, since Avocets settled on Paddy`s Pool island all work was immediately suspended and you will notice the piles of cockleshells that will be left now until after the breeding season. These will not be of any detriment to Common Terns.
All the work on the other islands will be concluded this morning.
We intended to have works completed by mid-April but when inspecting the islands after the winter we found that there was a lot of remedial works required to protect the islands against erosion.
The only species we have encountered incubating eggs have been Canada Geese and we always ensure that eggs are covered with goose down whilst work is undertaken. To date we have never had any clutch losses or failure.
Common Terns arrive back in numbers at the very end of April and begin to settle in early May and our plan is always to have all works completed in advance of that event.
As you have seen, Little Ringed Plovers are showing some interest and Oystercatcher look as though they will breed again. The Black-headed Gull colony continues to grow apace and the early clutches will start to be incubated any day soon.
We hace asked our conservation science team to investigate the inter-relationship between Black-headed Gull and Common Tern colonies so that we can better understand how to conserve both species.
Thanks you for the explanation Dave. I'm sure you have put several peoples concerns at rest, including my own.