Morgan Vaughan and his fantastic team of staff and volunteers have been saving a species right here on our doorstep on Chesil Beach. This year 33 pairs of little tern have nested on Chesil Beach and produced 77 eggs. Hard to believe that just a few years ago the colony here was close to collapse with just a handful of birds hanging on. Its been a fantastic effort guarding the nest site night and day from disturbance by animals and people and now that the chicks have started hatching from birds of prey and other mammals.
Here is Morgan’s story:
It’s all going very well for the little terns, the weather is being incredibly kind to the terns and plenty of fish are coming in to fill the chicks. A majority of the fishing is happening out in Lyme bay. This was causing the chicks to gravitate up the bank towards the hide, affording volunteers, staff and members of the public wonderful views of the chicks which seem to be growing before our very eyes.
At the start of the season around 80 coconut matting baskets filled with sand were placed out on the little tern nesting site and the majority of the birds chose these to nest on giving the eggs greater protection and warmth than the cold shingle.
Sand patch nest with little tern chicks. Picture credit: Morgan Vaughan, RSPB.
Here was one chick yesterday who thought I couldn’t see him/her under the twig!
Photo credit: Morgan Vaughan, RSPB
Approx 10 day old chick – feathers starting to come through on the wing.
We have unfortunately started to have interest from a male kestrel at the colony so the excellent wardening team of volunteers and staff have increased their efforts in keeping him at bay and will hopefully prevent the kestrel from having lunch at our section of the beach.
We have also deployed shelters for the chicks which they have been using to get out of the heat of the sun – keeping them out of sight from hungry kestrels too.
2 day old chick using a chick tunnel. Photo credit: Morgan Vaughan, RSPB
More excitement came in the form of the oyster catchers hatching – This will hopefully cause their parents to be even more aggressive to potential predators and help the little terns protect their young.
68 little tern eggs have hatched in total this year – The last 2 hatching at the start of July.
Just hatching! Picture credit: Morgan Vaughan, RSPB.
We now have at least 50 fledglings on the foreshore – A phenomenal success for Chesil beach little terns and testament to the dedication of wardens and volunteers involved in protecting the birds through proactive wardening efforts. Huge thank yous must also go to funders and partners: EU Interreg PANACHE project, Natural England, Crown Estate, Portland Court Leet, Dorset Wildlife Trust and the Chesil and Fleet Nature Reserve who without their support this would not have been possible.
Very satisfactory results, well done to the dedicated team of volunteers.
Seize the day!