200 chicks, colour ringing and Moths!

This year has been all about records. We have reached 2 milestones in the last week, we now have 208 (!) chicks on the beach with 13 eggs left to hatch and today we colour ringed our 100th chick! The numbers are extremely high and the colony is buzzing at the moment with plenty of fledglings in the air and 113 active pairs of Little Terns.

 

Colour ringed Little Tern chick © Kristina Abariute and Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS license)


 

This is the first year we have colour ringed Little Terns  in Kilcoole. We put metal rings on every Little Tern chick that hatches in Kilcoole (and have done so for many years) and they can be put on the chick when they are only a couple of days old as their leg doesn't change in diameter as they get older. We can only put colour rings on Little Tern chicks that are a couple of weeks old as colour rings are longer and we have to wait for the chicks legs to stretch out a bit first. Chicks start to leave the nest after 2 or 3 days so finding old enough chicks to colour ring is a little more difficult than metal ringing. At that age chicks congregate on the foreshore and, unlike their younger cousins, can run! So when we look for suitable birds to colour ring we usually end up catching a big group of them at once. The fact that we have colour ringed 100 out of 208 birds is incredible and it also gives us a good indication that many of the birds have survived the first 2 weeks, bearing in my mind that a fair chunk of the birds are not old enough for colour ringing!

  





Volunteer Kristina Abariute helping us colour ring the chicks © Kristina Abariute and Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS license)

 

Even though the Little Tern is a flagship species there are still many mysteries surrounding it's migration behaviour. We know they go to west Africa but west Africa is a big place and we are not certain what their migration routes are. We know that Little Terns move between sites, a dead adult tern was found last year in Baltray that was originally ringed in Kilcoole in 2010 and an adult bird was trapped on the Isle of Man last year that was also a Kilcoole bird ringed in 2010. We hope that colour ringing the birds will allow us to see the extent these birds move between sites. Colour rings are far more visible than metal rings and we hope this will lead to many re-sightings, especially considering that many Little Tern sites are actively wardened. We also hope that more re-sightings will happen along their migration routes. Most adult Little Terns are metal ringed but it is impossible to read the code from a metal ring, without catching an adult or finding a dead bird, so we don't know where they originated. This will not be the case with colour rings as the code is much easier to read but even if it is not possible to read the ring we can still get extremely useful information simply from the colour of the ring and what leg it is on. We are using green colour rings in Kilcoole with white writing on the left leg of the Little Tern. They are also colour ringing in Baltray and putting green colour rings on the right legs of the Little Tern. A colour ringing scheme is also underway in the Isle of Man where they are using yellow rings. Hopefully other tern colonies will follow suit and keep colour ringing for years to come as it should provide excellent long term data. Understanding everything about a species can be vital for determining it's conservation requirements. We can do everything we like to save a migratory species in our own country but if they are being killed in their wintering grounds it could count for very little. Hopefully this scheme will help us see the bigger picture. So remember if you see a colour ringed Little Tern report it!

Colour ringed Little Tern chick © Niall Keogh (Picture taken under NPWS license)

Kilcoole wardens Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell releasing colour ringed chicks © Niall Keogh (Picture taken under NPWS license)

And now for something completely different....

 

Stephen McAvoy paid us a visit last week and brought along his Moth trap. I was very lucky to see some real beauties before he let them back into the wild. The Poplar Hawk moth looks like it could devour a tern!

 

 Poplar Hawk-moth © Andrew Power

 

 

Garden Tiger Moth © Andrew Power

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have lift off.....

It's hard to believe that it is already mid July, the season has really flown by. But it's not the only thing flying in Kilcoole as the first wave of Little Tern chicks have begun fledging! The first chick, K1, was first seen in the air on the 4th of July (celebrating independence day) and the rest are starting to follow suit. We almost have the full range of Little Tern age groups on the beach now with 20 eggs left to hatch, 194 chicks of all sizes (getting close to the magic 200!) and, of course, the adult birds themselves. The only thing missing is a 2nd calender year bird which is a rare occurrence in Ireland. 2nd calender year Little Terns do not breed and tend to stay in Africa during the summer instead of migrating back to Ireland. However there is one or 2 knocking around in Baltray in Co. Louth. http://www.irishbirding.com/birds/web/Display/sighting/69114/Little_Tern.html

A cute, one day old, Little Tern chick © Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

An older, not so cute, Little Tern chick © Niall Keogh (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

Each stage of the season has different and unique challenges. Bird of prey activity has skyrocketed in the past couple of weeks. A juvenile Peregrine Falcon has frequented the colony practically every day for the past week and sometimes comes in 2 or 3 times a day. Luckily, the juvenile Peregrine is still learning it's trade and hasn't managed to pick any off any just yet. However, an adult Peregrine took out an adult Little Tern over the colony on the 7th of July. There is nothing we can do to prevent a hit and run predator like a Peregrine Falcon attacking the colony. It is the fastest bird in the world after all! Fortunately they do not tend to take many birds. Peregrine Falcons employ an almost cheetah like strategy where they use an incredible burst of speed to attack the colony and single off an individual bird. Little Terns are also master aviators and are usually capable of avoiding such attacks. Kestrels, on the other hand, will come to the colony and hover looking for the chicks. This gives us time to chase them off using state of the art anti-Kestrel technology (see below pic). If you ever see a warden running down the beach banging a frying pan and a saucepan together do not worry we haven't gone crazy (although that should not be ruled out!) we are just trying to scare off the Kestrel. Luckily we have only had to do that once this year. The Kestrels have not yet copped that there are chicks on the beach and hopefully it will stay that way. We have had occasional glimpses of Sparrowhawk (which took an adult Little Tern last year) and Long-eared Owl but they have not yet posed any threat. We have spotted a Fox on the beach on 2 occasions well north of the colony, snooping around, but it hasn't taken any notice of the terns.

Anti-Kestrel defence system © Andrew Power

So, all in all, everything is going according to plan. If the wee chicks can get through the next 3 or 4 weeks unharmed they will begin their journey back to Africa. We will be here, doing our best, to make sure that they get that far.

Next week's blog preview: Kilcoole and Baltray Little Tern colour ringing scheme and celebrity volunteers.





Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

Chicks, chicks and more chicks!

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks we have had in Kilcoole! Apologies for the lack of recent updates, the beach has really come alive since our last blog post. It is a minefield out there with new nests still being found and chicks running riot. We now have an army of 150 chicks on the beach with a further 90 eggs expected to hatch! It's a great and busy time to be a warden and we are thankful that the good weather is holding up. 

Kilcoole Little Tern flying off nest © Peter Cutler & Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

On the 19th of June, after the Spring tides, disaster struck the colony. A mild easterly combined with a high tide was enough to flood the foreshore and it effected almost 30 nests. 10 nests were destroyed completely and it was horrible seeing random eggs washed up in amongst the seaweed. Some nests were completely submerged but stayed put, others were carried by the tide into different locations (and later regathered by the adults) and other nests lost some of their eggs. However, Little Tern eggs are resilient and it was with great joy that we watched the majority of the tide effected nests hatch in the past couple of days. Needless to say that chicks are much better than eggs at avoiding the tide!

Some of the chicks hatching are incredibly small, the smallest chick to date hatched today and weighed a mere 4.57 grams. The first chick to hatch (K1) which is the largest one by some distance (nicknamed Juggernaut) has walked about 400 metres north and out of the colony protection. It may be the biggest but not the brightest! Hopefully it will go undetected outside the colony and fledge successfully. Unfortunately we found 2 more nests far outside the main colony, 1 with chicks and 1 with eggs. Sadly there is not much we can do in this situation so we ask any people walking the beach to try and stay on the path or at least be mindful that not all the terns are in the safety of the fencing!

Little Tern chicks showing different colour legs © Féaron Cassidy & Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

Kilcoole Little Tern chick (Cedric) © Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

We would not be able to stay on top of all the work here in Kicoole if was not for the help of our volunteers. We are very grateful for all the hours they have put in and it really makes a big difference to our efforts here! So, all in all, things are looking very good in Kilcoole. Regardless of what happens with the rest of the season we know that the Little Terns are doing well by the record numbers here and in Baltray. It is a great time to come down and see the colony so why not pop down for a visit?

Volunteer Cian Cardiff helping warden Andrew Power © Chris Dobson

Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

  

The first chicks and a record year!

It happened. The record has been broken. There are an astonishing 108 active pairs of Little Terns in Kilcoole. The previous record was 106 pairs in 2006. Incredibly, we are still finding nests and are expecting some more to relay. We were agonisingly stuck on 99 nests on Saturday the 14th of June but we completed the century with a tentative single early Sunday morning. This was perfect timing for the hugely successful Carlow and Wicklow Branch of BirdWatch Ireland outing later in the morning. Darren and I were both involved with the Baltray Little Tern Project last year which was also a record year so our good luck continues. However, we are under no illusions and records do not matter in June. We will see how the Little Terns are doing in August! Nevertheless it is great to see so many of them nesting here and with the good weather we hope this excellent start continues. 

Kilcoole Little Terns © Peter Cutler

The good news does not stop there as our first Little Tern chicks of the year hatched today! K1, found on the 25th of May, had 2 chicks this morning. When we checked the nest the second chick had just hatched and it was unusual to see the egg shell still in the nest and yolk on the head of one of the chicks! K1 was laid earlier than the rest of the group so most off the hatching will take place later this month. There are a staggering 244 eggs on the beach. This makes the colony all the more attractive and vulnerable to predators. The colony is now a beacon to predators with so many birds and eggs and the density of nests is so high that any stray dogs (or members of the public!) have a much higher chance of crushing eggs if they enter the colony. 

The first Kilcoole Little Tern chicks 2014 © Anne-Lise Gerard & Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

We started seeing some strange creatures drifting under the bridge into the lagoon a couple of days ago. We now have up to 40 Barrel Jellyfish washed up into the lagoon. Some of them are gigantic and can be up to 80 cm in diameter and weigh 35 kg! Check out this link to find out more - http://www.jellyfish.ie/irish_sea_jellyfish.asp#2. The good weather has also brought out the more colourful day flying moths such as the Hummingbird Hawk moth, the Six-Spot Burnet moth and the Cinnabar moth. The Oystercatcher chicks that hatched last week seem to be doing very well and starting to bulk up in size. We've also got another Oystercatcher pair nesting in the south end of the colony which gives us a total of 3 nests in close proximity. This gives the terns in the south end of the colony 6 hefty bodyguards. 

Barrel Jellyfish © Anne-Lise Gerard 

Kilcoole Oystercatcher chick © Anne-Lise Gerard & Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

The trials, tribulations and triumphs of a Little Tern Warden

* Before we update you on all the exciting news from the Little Tern Project I would like to remind everyone that there will be a joint Carlow and Wicklow Branch of BirdWatch Ireland outing to Kilcoole on Sunday the 15th of June. We will be meeting at the Kilcoole Railway Station carpark at 10:00am. This is always a great opportunity to meet some of the conservation team and get a guided tour of the Little Tern Colony!

Kilcoole Little Tern © James Murphy

It has been a strange week here in Kilcoole full of highs and lows. The nest explosion has continued and we're still finding more by the day. We have more than double the amount of the nests than the previous year! However, we were brought back to reality on Monday morning the 9th of June (the day the Earth stood still) after we discovered that 10 nests were depredated in the space of a couple of hours! 4 nests were completely destroyed and 6 were partially depredated, 4 of which were later abandoned. We did not see the culprit but based on the evidence it was almost certainly a corvid. It was most likely one of the usual suspects, Hooded Crows or Rooks, but we're not ruling out the Jackdaws, who have become ever bolder in entering the colony in search of food. It was hard to take at the time, especially as we were steamrolling our way to 100 nests! Luckily this attack has come early in the season, meaning that affected Little Tern pairs have a chance to relay, so all is not lost. For the moment the attack remains an isolated one but we will remain vigilant. The topography of the beach is more erratic than in previous years which leaves plenty of blindspots for predators to exploit and there is no predator out there as canny as a corvid.

Usually corvids leave no trace after taking eggs but on this occasion they left a messy scrape behind © Anne-Lise Gerard

Disturbance in general has been quite high this week with a number of unleashed dogs wreaking havoc on the foreshore and we recently discovered a nest, with the egg intact, covered in blood. A grim sight and proving to be a bit of a mystery. Before Monday morning we lost one nest to an unknown predator but we suspect it to be an Oystercatcher. Oystercatchers do not really look for Little Tern nests but, like most animals, they are opportunistic and will not tern down a free meal! We also lost one nest to the tides. We have a number of nests that are precariously placed on the foreshore that we are keeping a close eye on. The Spring tides are fast approaching but the forecast is looking good so fingers they can get through the next week.

Kilcoole foreshore vulnerable to high tides © Kristina Abariute

The road to recovery has already begun. We have subsequently found  7 nests and we know there are more out there. We now have a staggering 91 active nests with a combined total of 216 eggs! In the knowledge that there are more nests to find and that there are 10 pairs that need to relay, we know that we have over a 100 breeding pairs in Kilcoole which is great news. We are also expecting the first Little Tern nest (K1) to hatch in the next couple of days. Our first Oystercatcher nest hatched yesterday and we now have 3 prehistoric looking chicks running around on the beach to join the Ringed Plover chicks!

Kilcoole Oystercatcher chicks © Kristina Abariute & Andrew Power  (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

 Kilcoole Ringed Plover chick © Kristina Abariute & Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

There is always exciting wildlife to be found  in Kilcoole. The good weather has brought out the butterflies, damselflies and lizards but the highlight of the last couple of weeks has to be this stunning Osprey which briefly flew south past the colony!

Kilcoole Osprey © Niall Keogh

Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

Egg explosion! (not literally)

On the 28th of May we had but one nest. In the space of 5 days there has been an explosion of egg laying on the beach and we now have 40 nests, with a combined total of 61 eggs! The terns have evidently taken advantage of the good weather and we're expecting this trend to continue.

Little Tern nest © Andrew Power (Picture taken under NPWS  licence)

Many terns have been nesting beside the colony's Oystercatcher pair, perhaps taking advantage of the their guard dog capabilities! The Oystercatchers will call loudly and aggressively chase away any potential predators from their nest site. However the Oystercatchers receive little gratitude for their services as the terns continuously mob them while they are in the colony!

Noisy neighbours! Little Tern and Oystercatcher side by side © Peter Cutler

As always there is plenty of wildlife here in Kilcoole. A family of Otters have been making regular appearances around the camp and a very lonely Whooper Swan can be heard and seen most days calling to itself. It should have migrated by now but may have been injured. For the last few days there has been a Curlew Sandpiper hanging around with a flock of Dunlin which was a nice surprise.

Kilcoole Curlew Sandpiper © Peter Cutler 

Darren O'Connell and Andrew Power

Some nasty weather and the first nest!

After a promising start in Kilcoole, the poor weather of late has given us a minor setback. The wind, rain and cold have delayed the Little Terns nesting and we have only just found that elusive first egg today, but we're not complaining! We were getting a little anxious but after the stormy weather on the 23^rd of May we’re glad they were a little late. The strong northeast winds coupled with the high tide took down part of our seaward fence and washed plenty of seaweed onto the beach which later attracted foraging Hoooded Crows, a major foe of the Little Terns. 

 The nasty weather on Friday © Andrew Power

The tides even managed to encroach as far as one of the Ringed Plover nests and one of the Oystercatcher nests. The resourceful Ringed Plover parents incredibly moved all four of their eggs out of the nest scrape about 30 cm away from the threatening tide to safety! The tide briefly and gently covered the Oystercatcher nest but we expect everything to be okay as eggs are resilient and durable. Both the Ringed Plovers and Oystercatchers were incubating on their nests as normal when the weather calmed down.

The original nest scrape is on the left and the 4 eggs moved by the parents can be seen on the right © Andrew Power

It was sad to find an injured Guillemot in the colony that had obviously suffered from the horrible weather. It died shortly after we found it showing how tough the conditions were. Hopefully the bad weather will at least encourage the Terns to nest higher up on the beach.

A casualty of the bad weather © Andrew Power

To end on a positive note the first Ringed Plover chicks of the year hatched successfully on the 21^st of May, nice and early.  We have also seen plenty of fledglings on site such as Pied Wagtails, Stonechats and Robins. The weather has certainly improved for the moment and it was great to see so many butterflies fluttering about, we spotted the first Painted Lady and Common Blue of the year today. We have a long season to look forward to and hopefully the sun will keep shining!

Kilcoole Ringed Plover with young © Andrew Power

Andrew Power 

A new season starts and farewell to our great leader!

The 2014 Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project has well and truly started. The wardens are on site, the fences are up and we are eagerly waiting for the first Terns to nest. The signs are good with flocks of well over 100 Little Terns roosting on the beach at night (max count 141). Ringed Plovers (6 nests) and Oystercatchers (2 nests) have started nesting within the colony and we expect the Terns to join the party any day now.

 Oystercatcher nest, Kilcoole © Andrew Power

We would like to take this opportunity, before the season really kicks off, to thank Niall Keogh for his substantial contribution to the project over the years. It was a strange feeling deleting Niall’s profile off the blog and moving into ‘his’ caravan! Niall started volunteering in Kilcoole as a teenager and has been a full time warden in Kilcoole for the last 4 years. His presence on the beach was almost as reliable as the Terns themselves, so much so that a day rarely goes by without a member of the public asking where Niall has disappeared to!

Both Darren and I would not be working on this project if it were not for Niall. I was first introduced to him in 2010 and quickly became a volunteer and a good friend. I joined him in Kilcoole as a full time warden on the project last year. Niall first met Darren last summer in somewhat more unusual circumstances during the  Bioblitz in Glendalough. Darren slipped on the boardwalk and Niall helped Darren stem the bleeding on his knee (a wound which ended up requiring six stitches)! Next thing Darren knew he was volunteering in Kilcoole and shortly after became a full time Little Tern Warden in Baltray.

Niall is spending his summer in Scotland (where he very much enjoys the food, drink and birds) and on the R.V. Celtic Voyager surveying seabirds and cetaceans. Niall recently saw a Bermuda Petrel, the first ever sighting in Europe, way off the Kerry Coast so he is just about managing to cope without the Little Terns this year. He has assured us that he will be volunteering here on his days off. In fact Niall has already spent several days down here volunteering already and fittingly he found the first nest of the year while I was asleep. Luckily we saved face and found a couple more after he left! Niall has even generously donated a spare tripod to the project this year. His good deeds go on….

Niall marking the first nest of 2014. Photo by Ríona Howard

So on behalf of the project team we thank Niall for all his hard work, help and commitment to the project!




Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

Little Terns spotted at Kilcoole... and Dublin City!

The first Little Tern sighting of the year at Kilcoole (and Ireland) came on the 10th April when BirdWatch Ireland's own Dick Coombes saw one day roosting in the lagoon adjacent to the colony site. It was not seen thereafter and was assumed to have continued on North. This was a particularly early record but was soon followed up by a couple of other reports from sites in Co. Galway.

The next batch of Little Terns appeared in Co. Wexford with 7 at Rosslare Backstrand on 12th April. Over 20 birds were present there again yesterday plus another 4 at Tacumshin Lake.

With that, I took myself off down to the colony site at Kilcoole this morning and sure enough two adult Little Terns were present feeding actively offshore with a group of their larger relatives, Sandwich Terns. Great to see the bouncing flight style & hear the distinctive call again!

We'll expect more terns to start arriving from the end of April on wards with laying due to commence in about the third week of May.

In the meantime, I'd like to take the time to highlight a great project being run at the moment by DAVE which "aims to use art and social media to raise awareness of some of the endangered species in Ireland by placing free art in urban spaces." Essentially, a piece of art depicting a threatened Irish species is placed somewhere in a town or city (Dublin, Galway etc.) and a picture of it is posted online with some basic directions/hints as to where it is. If you find the piece then you get to keep it! (as long as you then share a pic of it's new home)

Just over a week ago, a pic was posted by DAVE of a Little Tern painting which was up for grabs in Smithfield, Dublin. As it happens, myself & fellow tern warden Andrew Power were in Dublin at the time so we legged it as fast as we could to Smithfield only to find the painting gone! But all was not lost. While en route, we sent out a few sneaky texts to friends in Dublin who we knew were nearby! Sure enough the painting was found by one of them just before we got there and they have kindly donated it to the Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project. The painting will find its place down at the colony site later this summer!

Pic posted online by DAVE with the info "A Little Tern in Meetinghouse Lane, Dublin city."...

Wardens arrive to find it gone!...

But thanks to our good friend Brian we now have it!

Be sure to follow DAVE on Facebook and Twitter for more updates on wildlife art which will be presented around the country.

Volunteers Needed For Upcoming Breeding Season

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!

Some of the typical duties which are often carried out by volunteers include:

• Assisting with the construction of protective fencing around the tern colony at the start of the breeding season.
• General ecological monitoring throughout the summer (flock counts, chick feeding studies etc.).
• Liaising with members of the public, providing general information on the terns & conservation project as well as facilitating viewing of breeding birds from a safe distance through telescopes.
• Ensuring disturbance from humans & dogs is kept to a minimum.

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

Kilcoole Oystercatcher chick resighted in Waterford!

One or two pairs of Oystercatcher nest on the beach among the Little Terns every year. As with the terns, we do our best to keep these guys safe and monitor their progress throughout the breeding season. Last July, staff from BirdWatch Ireland put coloured & coded leg rings on a brood of three Oystercatcher chicks that hatched from a nest at the main tern colony. This was done as part of a monitoring program of waterbirds (including Oystercatchers) in Dublin Bay, the idea being to gain an insight into the movements of locally bred birds from surrounding areas.

Kilcoole Oystercatcher chick & hatching egg © Niall T. Keogh

Kilcoole Oystercatcher chick with coded ring 'LV' & one of its parents © Niall T. Keogh

And sure enough one of them has been resighted! Clare Scott, an artist living on the coast of Waterford, reported a colour ringed Oystercatcher fitting the description of one of the Kilcoole birds at Garrarus beach near Tramore in December 2013. You can read all about Clare's Oyc sighting on her blog here. It was photographed there again in January 2014 by Liam Walsh. 

One of the Kilcoole Oystercatchers at Garrarus beach, Co. Waterford © Clare Scott 

Kilcoole Oystercatcher (third from the right) at Garrarus beach, Co. Waterford © Liam Walsh

So all in all, that's a distance of approx. 130km it has moved from its natal area at Kilcoole to the South West!

This is fantastic news for those involved in both the Dublin Bay Birds Project & Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project. Great to know one of 'our' charges during the breeding season here at Kilcoole has been surviving through the winter and also that the colour ringing scheme is delivering some really interesting & important results such as this.

The Dublin Bay Birds Project has a great blog on the go with lots of news & updates on the tracking & monitoring of wintering waders in the bay. And if you do come across a colour ringed Oystercatcher (or Redshank or Bar-tailed Godwit) then please get in touch with the project here.

Project Documentary Now Online

The Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project documentary was filmed during the summers of 2010 & 2011 by Andrew Power & Peter Cutler (Crow Crag Productions/BirdWatch Ireland Carlow Branch).

It features an introduction by Eric Dempsey, interviews with the wardens and some amazing nest camera footage of Little Terns & Ringed Plovers as well as other wildlife from the local area such as Otters.

Whats more, it is now available online for your viewing pleasure! Be sure to check it out & see an example of BirdWatch Ireland's conservation work in action.

Direct link to the tern documentary on Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/77581000

Little Tern chick & egg © Andrew Power & Peter Cutler

The Omega Chick!

As mentioned in a previous blog post, we were eagerly waiting for the last viable egg left on the beach from nest K50 to hatch...well it did!

And so our youngest member of the colony came into the world on Friday morning & should hopefully fledge around 20th August. This very late hatching date means that it will have to sharpen up fairly quickly as it will be thrown straight into the arduous journey South for the Winter. 

This is where those chicks born earlier in the season will have a major advantage as they will have had these past few weeks to build their strength & learn some important lessons in foraging for themselves which may make all the difference when it comes to surviving their first winter.

But the Kilcoole Little Terns are as hard as nails so no doubt this latest recruit will be back in two years time to have a go at breeding itself!

Our final charge for the season © Andrew Power

And they're off!...

The past week has brought about a change in the mood of the terns as well as a decrease in the numbers present at the colony, signalling the beginning of the end of the breeding season.

We've noticed that the terns seem to be a lot more agitated, with frequent flocking flights ('dreads') out over the foreshore, some of which end up far out to sea, flashing like a shoal of fish as they twist & turn in a tight-nit ball.

On their return to shore, it would often appear that the flock is somewhat smaller than before. I reckon a few birds use these 'dreads' as an opportunity to peel away & start making their first move South of the Autumn. I guess this 'agitated' behaviour shown by the terns may well be an eagerness to get moving with the frequent 'dreads' kicking off the process.

Adult Little Tern in flight © Ronnie Martin

Another more obvious factor at play lending to the nervous disposition of the terns is the presence of a juvenile Peregrine racing through the colony each morning! The young falcon is most likely still being fed by its parents (an adult female has been seen about too) and it never really seems to make an honest effort at catching the terns despite getting quite close on a number of occasions. Most likely what is happening is that the bird is simply honing its hunting technique which will be vital if it is to survive its first winter. It has also been seen chasing after Manx Shearwaters out at sea! Thrilling to watch this soon to be apex predator in action & heartening to know they've bred successfully in Wicklow after recent news of persecution of Peregrines has just come to light.

So with the hint of Autumn in the air & the added push of a predator in the vicinity, daily counts of the terns have dropped from 150+ adults & 50+ juveniles last week to 70+ adults & 20+ juveniles at the moment. We've also received reports of adult & juvenile Little Terns seen recently at Dalkey, Co. Dublin & Tacumshin Lake, Co. Wexford, sites where the terns do not breed but can visit during migration.

Juvenile Little Tern © Niall Keogh

Furthermore, during a count at the Kilcoole colony on Tuesday evening, I noticed a very advanced looking juvenile present which was unringed! Not one of 'our' birds therefore, perhaps one which has travelled south from the colony at Baltray? We have also been seeing the other species of terns making their way past Kilcoole in recent days, with adult & juvenile family groups of Sandwich, Roseate, Arctic & Common Terns heading North for the staging area at Dublin Bay where they will feed & rest for the next month before making the big push South for the Winter.

So all in all, the terns are on the move and whilst the beach is starting to quieten down, this is ultimately what we want to see at this stage of the season. Good to know that the fledglings are strong enough to be making this first leg of migration & the rest of their lives!

We're now watching over the final 15 chicks left which have still yet to fly. We expect them to do so by the middle of the month & we will remain on duty until then to ensure they make it!

 

 

Juvenile Little Terns in flight © Peter Cutler
The young terns can be seen practice fishing along the foreshore of the colony at the moment. Yet to see them catch anything though!

The Omega Egg

Most years we find that the breeding progress of the colony is staggered & generally forms two distinct groups, one lot which breed in the traditional first week from mid-late May & another which begin sometime in the first week of June. This was true again this year but we also had a run of late nests into the first week of July, most likely re-lays from the small number of losses incurred at the egg stage (due to abandonment, Oystercatcher predation etc.).

The 6 pairs or so of terns which nested latest finally made it around to hatching over the past couple of days. Amazing to think that these day old chicks had no problem weathering the heavy rain, thunder & lighting on Wednesday night!

As such we are down to our last nest with one egg waiting to hatch. On checking it this morning, the egg showed some early signs of life poking out from within (faint lines starting to appear on the shell) so with a bit of luck we'll have our last chick out & about by early next week at the latest. With that we should expect our latest chicks to fledge sometime around the end of the third week in August.

So as of this afternoon we have 42 active pairs with 47 fledglings, 27 chicks & 1 egg left to hatch.

Nest K50...Paddy Last! © Niall Keogh