End of a season on Chesil Beach

Hello everyone, including volunteers old and new! 

The Little Tern Project at Chesil Beach is a one that aims to help boost the dwindling number of feisty little terns that nest here, in partnership with other land-owners and charities (Natural England,  Chesil Bank and Fleet Nature Reserve, The Crown Estate, Dorset Wildlife Trust and Portland Court Leet). The colony is the only one in the South West- an accolade we are all very proud of!

This season has been a series of ups and downs, and with an early blow in the form of a fox attack, it looked as though the Project team were in for a tough ride this year.

The terns had other ideas. They hunkered down, rode out the storm, foxes, kestrels and crows to produce a grand total (so far) of 33 nests, with nests 1, 6 & 13 (we number each nest to make it easier to survey them) blazing the trail for the other pairs as survivors of the fox attack (cue Destiny’s Child outburst). To date, over sixty chicks have hatched, including as many as thirty fledglings seen since June 23^rd!

We have three nests still incubating (45-47), so our total looks set to rise even more, which will further boost the population of this endangered little bird.

Our colony is watched around the clock, and I am one of the lucky night wardens who gets to watch the sun set and rise again, all in the name of conservation. Being on duty until 6am gives us the opportunity to do the first nest count of the day, and make sure all is well with the colony. Fortunately our nocturnal neighbourhood foxes have been relatively scarce to date, so that when they do pop up, we’re almost eager to see them off!

However, one animal determined to rain on our parade is the Kestrel. These beautiful and highly-skilled predators have had their beady eye on our terns from the off. We took heavy losses throughout June, with fears that the suspect pair from Portland would greatly deplete chick numbers.

But, as mentioned above, this is a rollercoaster season, and the introduction of diversionary feeding on the concrete buttress has proved highly effective. The station has successfully done its job, cutting down on the number of tern chicks taken, which is great! And our diligent volunteers, have been helping out with the kestrel deterrent dance, involving everything from clapping, hand-waving to shouting and, on my part, some verbal abuse! 

So despite the constant threat the kestrel poses, this season can still be a positive one if we continue to join forces with the terns and keep those pesky kestrels away. Thanks to our team of dedicated volunteers for all your effort so far! Find out how our volunteer, Julia, got along volunteering at Chesil beach here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/weymouthwetlands/b/weymouthwetlands-blog/archive/2015/07/14/big-beach-little-terns.aspx

Nicole Walton, Chesil Beach Little Tern Project Assistant