Windy Business!

The strong Southerly winds over the past few days have been hampering our efforts to get the fence up around the colony. Some sections keep blowing over & have had to be re-enforced with extra posts. This morning I woke up to find that last nights hide tide coupled with the easterly element of the wind had flattened the seaward section of fencing overnight, which is rather annoying to say the least! At least we know now how far we can extend the fencing down the beach whilst keeping it out of reach from the tides. The shape of the beach this year might present a bit of a problem as it is very low & the high tide mark is quite far up compared to other years meaning that the amount of safe breeding habitat for the terns is largely reduced.

Wind + fencing = tired wardens! © Niall Keogh

It seems that the terns are aware of this already as they have been sitting up high on the beach over the past few days. With any luck the terns will take the hint & change the layout of the colony so as it is long & thin, ensuring the majority of birds nesting will be well out of reach from particularly high tides or storms. There are now approximately 85 Little Terns present at the colony & again there's plenty of courting, display flights & sandeel passing being observed. Some birds have even been seen apparently prospecting for nest sites. No mating has been noted yet though so we're still not expecting eggs anytime soon (the average laying date is about the 19th May).

Female Little Tern (right) after receiving a Sandeel 'gift' from a courting male (left) © Niall Keogh
 

The northward Spring passage of waders continues with counts of 35 Dunlin, 33 Black-tailed Godwits, 13 Bar-tailed Godwits, 5 Whimbrel, 17 Turnstone, 8 Oystercatchers, a Common Sandpiper & a single Sanderling. Bird of Prey have been particularly prevalent also with singles of Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine & Kestrel hunting the general area & even a female Marsh Harrier on Stringer's land on Sunday morning. Other noteworthy species over the past few days include a female White Wagtail, a Red-throated Diver, Manx Shearwaters, a Wheatear, 5 Little Egrets, 3 Shoveler, 2 Teal, Swift, a Grasshopper Warbler & 2 Stock Doves. A young Otter seen on Friday was a rare daytime sighting for this time of year (they usually go very nocturnal in summer around here).

A Ringed Plover on the beach yesterday evening. The small size, dark colouration to upperparts & state of moult suggest it is a migrant from an Arctic breeding population as opposed to one of our own local birds © Niall Keogh

RP1 & RP2

A quick scan of the colony on Saturday evening revealed a female Ringed Plover sitting low & tight, indicating that she might be incubating eggs. A closer inspection confirmed that she was indeed on 4 eggs, a full clutch! The nest was a typical Ringed Plover scrape, decorated with white & amber stones as well as pieces of white seashells. The nest was then given the rather imaginative name of RP1 (i.e. Ringed Plover 1!) and marked nearby with a coded stone so we can find it with relative ease & check on it’s status over the coming days. The female plover is still present & incubating today.

Just a pile of shingle?...

Whats that in the middle?...

...4 eggs from Ringed Plover nest RP1 © Niall Keogh

Ringed Plover generally begin breeding well before the Little Terns do so it's no surprise that we have a nest with eggs already. Spurred on by the discovery of RP1, I gave the colony a thorough scan again yesterday. The strong Southerly winds that we're experiencing at the moment has meant that most birds out on the beach such as Ringed Plover, Little Terns, other species of wader etc. are all hunkered down & facing into the wind, making them all look like they are sitting on nests! One female Ringed Plover did look a bit unusual in her stance however, sitting upright with all her breast feathers fluffed out. This is typical behaviour of a bird that is 'brooding', i.e. keeping chicks warm or sheltered underneath it. When the wind died down a bit I approached the female plover who quickly scurried away & began her distraction display nearby. Sure enough there were 4 small Ringed Plover chicks (probably only a day or two old at most) huddled together doing their best to try & keep themselves out of trouble! The general are where the chicks are present was marked as RP2.

The 4 Ringed Plover chicks from RP2 © Niall Keogh

It's great to get two pairs of Ringed Plover breeding already this early in the season. It should give them a good head start on getting their broods out & fledged successfully. We'll keep monitoring these two pairs & any others which attempt to breed over the course of the season and keep you guys updated on how they are getting on.

See ya,

Niall

Un-Breached

The number of Little Terns at the colony rose to 64 yesterday. Again there was plenty of dreading & courtship activity to be observed. Should be about 2 weeks until the first egg is laid! The string fencing & information signs are now in place around the main part of the colony between the Buckthorn bushes & The Breaches bridge whilst the first section of flexi-net is in position along the wardens path.

The Breaches is now open after being blocked for some time, so we're expecting the small estuary to become tidal again soon enough which should attract more wading birds to the area during the peak Spring migration period over the next couple of weeks. Thanks go to the staff at Newcastle Airfield for opening up the shingle bar at The Breaches which gets blocked during periods of strong North-easterly or Easterly winds, causing water to back up into the estuary & onto the marsh. It's important to keep The Breaches open as much as possible, not only for the local wildlife but also for the surrounding farmland.

Hi-Mac opening the shingle bar at The Breaches to release backed up water © Niall Keogh

Normal tidal patterns allow the small estuary at The Breaches to become a haven for wading birds, Kingfishers, Otters & Grey Mullet © Niall Keogh

Day One!

Myself, Cole & Jason moved the caravans, fence posts & signs down onto the site today. The first set of barriers around the colony, comprising of string fencing & information signs will go up over the next day or two. This will mark out what section of the beach is off-limits and what section of the path is still open to the public. The main fencing around the colony (flexi-net & electric fencing) will be put in place over the next while once we get an idea of where the birds are settling down to nest.

Plenty of Little Tern activity at the main colony site with lots of courtship & display flights going on. Quite a bit of dreading was observed too, during which a total of 46 birds were counted (up from 10 birds when I visited the colony on Saturday).

The Breaches has been blocked for sometime now and the estuary is full to the brim. As such most of the waders in the area were in Webb's field (NPWS reserve). There was still plenty of them moving through all the same with 22 Whimbrel, 23 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Bar-tailed Godwits, 18 Dunlin, 16 Turnstones & a Common Sandpiper noted this afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing how the wader migration pans out over the next 3 weeks or so, let's hope for something good! The only other birds of note were a Swift & a Yellowhammer at the farmyard and a 'winter' plumaged Red-throated Diver seen offshore from the colony.

Anyways, it's great to be back. The raucous sound of Little Terns displaying overhead was a welcome sound!

I'll post again this weekend/Monday with some pics & an update on how the fencing/setting up process goes.

See ya,

Niall