A Late Year?

 

Since the last update, the full fencing system around the main colony site has been completed, well in advance of the birds settling. Day time counts of terns continued to fluctuate markedly, peaking at 60-70 birds during evening roost watches (all normal behaviour on the run up to breeding). We've also come past a run of Spring Tides which just about reached the seaward fence in places but thankfully caused no damage on account of the offshore wind direction. Furthermore, there's been very little activity from potential predators in the general vicinity.

So all in all, no major complaints, everything going according to plan...except the terns have been late nesting!

Fencing around the main colony site © Niall Keogh

The annual Hedgehog check...none found! © Niall Keogh

Dusk roost watch along the foreshore © Niall Keogh

A pair was seen mating on 16th May which at the time, suggested to me that the first eggs were to appear around the 20th May (well within the average date range for first laying of 18th-21st May). But waited we did & the expected first clutch never appeared. And not for want of trying on the terns behalf! Courting & mating pairs were a regular sight along the foreshore in the mornings followed up by prospecting birds digging out potential nest scrapes in the afternoon.

Male (left) doing his best to court a female (right)...the biggest fish wins! © Niall Keogh

 

 

A new arrival of fresh faced individuals over the weekend of Sat 25th/Sun 26th May brought some much needed vigour to the colony. Display flights known as 'dreads' became more frequent with up to 100 birds in the air at times. The sudden increase in noise that came with it didn't escape the attention of the public who regularly commented on the fact that it was great to hear the colony 'as it should be' once again.

Little Tern © Niall Keogh

And so it happened that on Monday 27th May, the first Little Tern nest of 2013 was found... K1, complete with 2 chocolate brown blotched, sandy eggs. A full week later than expected mind you, but hey, at least they've started!

Little Tern © Mark Carmody Photography

Volunteering

We're looking for volunteers to assist with the conservation of Little Terns at Kilcoole this season.

 

No experience is necessary, all we ask is that you're keen to help out & willing to learn lots about seabirds in the process!

 

So if you'd like to spend some time this summer helping to protect one of Ireland's rarest breeding birds then please get in touch with us by e-mail on littletern@birdwatchireland.ie

It's Tern Time!

The first Wicklow Little Tern sighting of 2013 was of 10 birds at Newcastle on 16th April. A high count for such an early date. Since then, numbers have been fluctuating between 15 & 30 birds most days as is standard practice for the time of year on account of the terns moving widely along the East coast before deciding where to settle and breed. The peak count at Kilcoole so far has been of 68 Little Terns roosting at the main colony site on 8th May.

Little Tern coming in to roost in the evening © Niall Keogh

In the run up to the first eggs being laid (expected anytime from next weekend onwards), myself & Cole have been living on site, getting the relevant equipment ready to enclose & protect the nesting birds. At present there is a basic cordon with information signs in place around the colony, marking out which areas are safe for members of the public to walk along. Once we get an idea of where the terns are likely to nest then we'll start putting up the more elaborate flexi-net & electric fence system.

In the meantime, we've been busy reacquainting ourselves with the local beach walkers who's continued interest in the terns & the project has shown no let up. It's great to see you guys again!

There are a few pairs of Ringed Plovers displaying on the beach & a pair of Oystercatchers hanging about so we'll keep an eye on these guys too throughout the season. I expect they'll lay sometime before the terns do.

At the moment the terns seem to be settling in fine with plenty of courtship & display noted yesterday along with a few potential pairs landing on the beach, the male in tow with a juicy sandeel 'gift' for the female.

Pre-breeding terns gathered along the foreshore © Niall Keogh

Other species of tern, such as this Arctic Tern, have been roosting on the beach in recent days © Niall Keogh

However, at present I am quite concerned about the state of the beach this year. After the frequent bouts of high tides & storms in 2012, the beach has yet to recover fully to its former extent and as such it is still quite narrow & low, leaving much of it vulnerable to flooding. Fingers crossed this will build up before the birds lay and that we'll have a calm summer ahead of us!!!

Little Tern Documentary

The Carlow Branch of BirdWatch Ireland will be premiering the Kilcoole Little Tern Project Documentary this Weds 17th April in The Lord Bagenal Inn, Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow at 8pm.

The documentary was filmed by branch members Andrew Power & Peter Cutler during the summers of 2010 & 2011. With an introduction by Eric Dempsey, the film features some great footage of breeding Little Terns, Oystercatchers & Ringed Plovers as well as Otters, Harbour Porpoise, Viviparous Lizard etc. 

Not to be missed! What’s more, its FREE and all are welcome.

Full details can be found on the event page here.

K6 adult & chicks. Nest cam footage © Andrew Power & Peter Cutler

Niall, Peter & Andrew setting up the nest cam beside K6 © Siobhan McNamara

Breeding Waders

With no major tern news to report of late I thought I'd take the time to share a few pics of the Ringed Plovers, Oystercatchers, Lapwing & Snipe we've had nesting here at the colony & on the adjacent marsh this season.

Despite some excellent numbers of breeding birds present (20+ pairs of Lapwing, 10+ pairs of Ringed Plover, 6 pairs of Oystercatchers & c.5 drumming Snipe) most seemed to have failed due to a combination of persistent wet weather, predation from Foxes & crows, severe Spring tides & abandonment of nests. This follows a nationwide pattern of poor breeding success reported so far this year.

Only one clutch of Oystercatcher eggs hatched but the chicks vanished soon after. Several broods of Ringed Plovers were to be seen scampering around the beach a few weeks ago but none of the expected fledged juveniles have materialised on the nearby marsh & estuary. As few as 6 Lapwing young are thought to have fledged despite plenty of clutches hatching successfully. Snipe are out of our reach for checking on breeding success effectively but lots of drumming, singing & displaying has been noted so hopefully they did ok.

Tern warden Niall Keogh fitting a Ringed Plover chick with a uniquely coded metal ring © Jamie Durrant

Ringed Plover chick just after being ringed  © Jamie Durrant

Adult Ringed Plover brooding a chick during wet weather. An all too common sight this season © Ronnie Martin 

Ringed Plover nest with an adopted stone! These eggs failed to hatch unfortunately © Niall Keogh 

Distraction displays by an adult Oystercatcher on the day the eggs hatched © Laura Nuttall

A well grown Lapwing chick © Niall Keogh

A 'drumming' (i.e. displaying) Snipe © Brian Carruthers 

Wash Out 2: Return of the Tide

Whilst writing the final report for last year’s project, we joked that in the recommendations section we should suggest that Liam Neeson be hired as a warden in future years (if you’ve seen Taken then you’ll know why...Foxes & crows wouldn’t stand a chance!). In any case, this year I think we’ll be asking for Moses to be employed as Chief High Tide Warden, as we sure could have done with him two weeks ago! 

The aftermath of the June Bank Holiday Spring high tide revealed a beach in very poor condition, at a much lower than before and devoid of the gullies & furrows along the foreshore which would help slow the momentum of any waves trying to make their way up. All this proved fatal for our second clutch re-lays which, as reported in the last update, began appearing on Sunday 10^th June. Over the next few days we had recorded up to 24 nests of which one was predated by an Oystercatcher and one was abandoned soon after laying. The rest however were lost from Thursday evening onwards when a measly 3.3m high tide was able to race up the shore towards the Marram dunes once more thanks to the backing of a F6 E-NE wind. I would never have considered that a tide of this height could cause any real damage but such is the state of play this season.   

Erosion along the foreshore, eating away once viable nesting habitat & getting dangerously close to the fence! © Niall Keogh

This latest inundation swept away most of the nests and in subsequent days the remainder were lost to persistent Hooded Crows, once again attracted onto the beach by piles of fresh seaweed for them to pick through. Despite some drastic wardening efforts, they managed to get the better of us and by Sunday morning the colony fell silent once more.

Over the following week it was evident that the terns had suffered enough. Flock counts started to drop dramatically, often with just 20-35 birds present, usually for a few hours in the early morning before heading off to sea for the day, presumably to feed. Small parties would occasionally make their presence known in the afternoon, wheeling over the colony with males in tow carrying fish as if to get the ball rolling on courtship once more.

Courting Little Terns © Ronnie Martin

This activity decreased further still and the whole of Saturday went by without a single sighting of a Little Tern! Thankfully there has been a moderate increase in the past two days with up to 45 birds present in the morning, some of which have EVEN been seen landing on the beach! (amazing how small things like that get you excited when all seems lost). A glimmer of hope may reside in the fact that last year, our latest nest which went on to hatch & fledge successfully was laid as late as the 9^th July, but saying that a large breeding colony was in full swing at that stage so a late nester may have felt more comfortable in doing so. 

So the big question now is...are we at too late a stage in the season for the Little Terns to start again from scratch?

Only time will tell. 

Back in Business

After the recent combination of a Spring tide wash out and subsequent crow predation leading to the loss of all nests at the colony, our Little Terns became quite unsettled and by mid last week nearly all the birds seemed to have left the site for the most part. Some small groups would appear during the day, wheel around for a few minutes and then head back out to sea, roosting flocks arrived very late in the evening and birds were generally only present for a few hours the next morning with numbers just reaching about 50 terns. Several hours would go by without a single tern being seen and the silence was most certainly deafening, a development noted by several members of the public just as much as the wardens!

A relatively quiet past week allowed us to get some jobs done, such as building our research & monitoring hide © Niall Keogh

Little Terns will often 'jump ship' and move to another colony if a disaster strikes during their first breeding attempt of the season. This has happened in years gone by where birds breeding in Wexford abandoned their site due to some persistent Peregrine activity followed by a move to Kilcoole. Taking this into account, we were keen to find out if the other major east coast breeding colonies of Little Terns had been affected by the same misfortune we had and whether their numbers would increase or decrease there over the coming weeks as a result of birds redistributing.

The news we received was bad. The Little Tern project at Baltray in Co. Louth was also washed out by the Spring tides and a large colony in Wexford which is being monitored by NPWS staff suffered 100% loss at the same time. Much to the delight of both the wardens and the public, the situation at Kilcoole however has improved markedly in the past few days.

I awoke on Sunday morning to the raucous chatter of flocking and displaying terns over the colony, a sound which actually warmed my heart and I was overcome with a sense of relief. The birds were quite obviously settling back down with plenty of courtship feeding, nest site selection and some successful mating was noted throughout the day. Later that evening, the distinctive posture of incubating birds heralded the arrival of new eggs! Laying has continued since & as of this afternoon we have 16 active nests with 23 eggs. Clutch sizes have been limited to 1 or 2 eggs but this is expected with re-lays, which are always smaller than the first attempt. 

Some eggs are most certainly better than none however!

K86, the first of the re-lays © Niall Keogh

Since then we have been flat out trying to ensure these new nests receive the utmost protection we can provide with several volunteers coming down to help us out who have rallied to the cause after hearing about last weeks misfortune. Crows have been chased, Foxes have been shouted at & I even frightened off a Short-eared Owl which landed on the beach at 23:50 last night! 

The only loss to report on was a most unexpected one. Yesterday afternoon, whilst the terns were off on a social flocking 'dread', an Oystercatcher lifted a single, unguarded egg out of nest K92 and flew off with it! I was totally shocked at this latest development. Oystercatchers are regarded as infrequent predators at Little Tern colonies & a small number of losses have occurred at Kilcoole over the years (with the most recent confirmed Oystercatcher predation as far back as 1997). I'm convinced that this Oyc wasn't one of our breeding birds, merely an interloper which saw an opportunity for a quick meal. The two pairs nesting alongside the terns have done so for the past few weeks without any incident so why they would change their behaviour all of a sudden is beyond me. In any case, we'll keep a close eye on any Oycs in the colony over the coming days for further signs of divilment!

Stay out of trouble! © Niall Keogh