Sunny Side Up in Kilcoole

The Terns are doing a fierce job making nests and laying eggs. This week has been a brilliant one for new nest discoveries! Tonight, we have a tally of 75 active Tern nests and 189 eggs on the beach, which we are, of course, delighted about. The expected arrival date for the first little ternlet is coming ever closer – I hope to meet my first chick of the 2015 season within two weeks.

A Little Tern carefully checks how her eggs are doing © Chris Dobson (taken under NPWS licence)

Our remaining Ringed Plovers are very close to hatching. Several nests have slowly cracking eggs. Likewise, our first Oystercatcher eggs are cracking (ever so slowly), keeping us in great suspense! I regularly come across three of the four Ringed Plover chicks that hatched this week as they have stayed in the vicinity of their nesting area in front of the hide. The parents spend all day long searching for them among the stones, whistling and darting back and forth towards the chick’s calls. They find one, only to loose the other two and set off again. They try to sit and brood another, just to hear the call of the third and jump straight back up to find it, while the first scarpers into the grass again!

The good weather and sunshine looks set to continue for the time being. Hopefully the high pressure will keep the tide at bay and prevent a repeat of last week’s wash out. If the sunshine stays in Kilcoole, we may have another great rise in nest numbers by next week.

Susan and Paddy

Ringed Ringed Plovers

We had a lovely evening when one of our Ringed Plover nests hatched four adorably fluffy little chicks. These four chicks were ringed with metal rings so that we can monitor their progress in the colony and perhaps see where they head off to as adults.

Ringed Plover hatchlings © Susan Doyle (picture taken under NPWS licence)

Fluffy Ringed Plover chick on the move! © Chris Dobson (picture taken under NPWS licence)

Tough Plover parenting © Chris Dobson (picture taken under NPWS licence)

For you know I'd even try to turn the tide

Alas, after such a positive start to the season, our fortunes did not last.

The Terns and I survived the unruly wind and rain all day Monday (see how the wind took half of our Warden Flag - raised 24/7, because we are here 24/7!). The weather eased and calmed by sunset, but there were indicators that something was coming – Manx Shearwater were visible from the shore and a large pod of Common Dolphin passed very close, both telling of storms far out to sea. 

The wind took half our flag off!

 That night, the tide came in… and kept coming in further… and further … and further. The unusually high tide surge, probably pushed by a sea storm, obliterated our seaward fence and claimed many nests in the colony.When I rolled into bed on Monday night, we had a colony-count of 51 active nests and 136 eggs. On rolling back out Tuesday morning, we had 41 active nests and 108 eggs. Altogether, 10 nests were lost. It was a sad old morning surveying the damage from the bird-hide: many Little Terns were sitting on top of the fencing and seaweed that had buried their eggs.

Seaward fence torn down by the tide

On a happier note, 7 new nests were found after the tidal sweep. Thus, the Tern facts and figures are currently at: 48 active nests (out of a total of 62 nesting attempts) and 119 eggs. Not a bad way to be indeed! It is so early in the season that many Terns who lost their nests are likely to re-lay, and sure enough, many Terns were observed digging scrapes and sampling nest spots today.

Susan and Paddy

Colony news for May

Now that we have reached the end of May, lets see some vital Tern statistics for the first three weeks of the project.

After the four day gap between the first and second nest, numbers shot up dramatically. On the 25^th of May, 3 new Terns began nesting. The next day, 9 more were on eggs and the numbers continued to grow in this way all week. On May 31^st, we happily marked our 53^rd nest in the 2015 Little Tern colony. Altogether, that made for 146 eggs and potential chicks so far!

Naturally, there have been some losses, but we have been very fortunate. Corvids led to the direct loss of just 2 nests. A single egg was also taken from a third nest, but we have watched her closely ever since and she has continued to incubate her remaining two eggs. The third egg in a Tern nest is often an insurance policy for exactly this kind of loss, so the remaining two chicks in her nest are actually more likely to benefit by not having to share food and other parental care with a third sibling! Also, Nest No.39 was swept away by the tide the day after laying. However, on contemplating her choice of nest site, I feel that this loss was inevitable – just look at this picture of the bank where she decided to bed down. Note how it is completely covered by crashing waves at high tide everyday!!

The wave battered bank on which one Tern unwisely decided to make a nest.

It is still early in the season, so any Terns that have lost eggs are very likely to re-lay and still hatch out some chicks. Some of the Terns are still venturing towards parenthood: more new nests have already been found this morning, while the mating and courting behaviours that are a precursor to nesting are still observed in the colony, meaning more eggs can be expected.

On the Ringed Plover front, 7 nesting attempts have so far occurred in the colony. 5 Plovers are still resolutely incubating their clutches. One Plover unfortunately lost her nest, but on the brighter side, another Plover successfully hatched out four Plover chicks!

As for the Oystercatcher, 4 nesting attempts were made. One Mother Oystercatcher is still unyieldingly attached to her nest – we are hoping to find chicks there any day now – while a second abandoned her egg. A third, rather defiant, Oystercatcher lost her first nest, but has made an industrious second attempt with a daring 4 egg clutch! We wish her well!

With this very positive start to the season, we step into June with great optimism. What we meet is howling winds and pounding rain, but, as I hang onto the side of the bird-hide for dear life, I can tell you that those Terns are sitting tight on the beach, and spirits are not dampened!

Susan and Paddy

A big thank you to Seamus for volunteering to fix the driver’s window on the TernMobile – its great to finally have it shut again (and keeping this rain out!).

A costly way of thinking

Flight is a very costly activity indeed. Birds spend a great deal of energy lifting off and staying in the air. Long distance migrants, like our Terns, direct so much energy towards flying that they must reduce the energetic demands elsewhere in their bodies. One way in which birds have reduced energetic expenditure is in the brain. For many regular and day-to-day behaviours, birds operate on a “rule of thumb” basis. They essentially skip the thinking part by following the simple rule “if such-and-such a situation is happening, then… do this”. For example “if there are white speckled things in my nest, then…sit on them” soon followed by “if there are cheeping, gaping things in my nest, then…feed them”. Following this rule of thumb, birds will incubate their young as eggs and then feed them as chicks. By using this method of thinking, the brain does not need to be as big and complex and more energy can be directed to activities like flying.

But alas, although they evolved to work very well and save a great deal of brain power, sometimes a rule of thumb behaviour just ends up wasting your time. For example, see the case of the Black-headed Cardinal feeding goldfish in a garden pond. Following the rule “if I see a red coloured, gaping hole, then…feed it”, the Cardinal's brain is triggered by the shape and colour of the goldfish mouths and, thinking they are actually the gaping mouths of baby chicks, feeds the fish as if they were its own young in the nest.

I saw a similar example of time wasting in the colony today during a rowdy encounter between the Little Terns and Ringed Plover. To explain it, I must first explain two rules that Little Terns and Ringed Plover follow.

Rule #1: “If there is a sick individual attracting attention to the colony, then…chase it away” – Little Terns.

Nesting in groups helps protect Little Tern nests from predators. When a big black crow flies into the colony (or when I go in for colony nest checks), the Terns get together and torment it until it retreats. Similarly, the Terns get together in a gang to chase away any sick individuals near their nests. Sick individuals are loud and flap about, creating a landing beacon for any hungry predators lurking nearby. If there is a sick bird flapping and crying in the colony, the Terns will mob it until it either leaves, or in grim circumstances, gives up and dies.

Rule #2: “If a predator is near my nest, then…attract its attention to me instead” – Ringed Plovers.

A strategy often used by ground nesting birds, when a predator is near the nest, the parent attract its attention and leads them away from the nest. Birds do this by pretending to be sick or injured – an easy catch and an easy meal for a hungry fox. When I approach a Ringed Plover nest to do my colony nest checks, the Plover whistles and cries out to me, then pathetically limps the opposite direction waggling a “broken” wing falling all over the place. It is effective – I do get very distracted! Predators will follow the “injured” Plover away from the nest a sufficient distance before she miraculously heals and flies off into the distance.

Maybe you can already see where I am going here. This morning in the colony, a Plover, sensing some sort of predator danger, began her broken wing exercise to protect her nest. The Terns, on seeing this sick and injured individual near their nests, began to mob and harass her. The Plover felt more threatened and upped her limping and squealing antics. The Terns became more concerned and upped the shouting and dive-bombing. The scene escalated to a tight cluster of 30 Terns furiously screaming over the head of a single Plover rolling around on the ground having an epileptic fit.

Nobody was incubating their eggs. Nobody was fishing for food. Yet there were no predators in sight and no dying birds to attract them. Following their rule of thumb, while usually quite beneficial, just didn't really do the job this morning. The Terns eventually dispersed and returned to a state of peaceful incubation with their Plover colony-mates.

There you have it, you can never be prepared for everything.

Susan and Paddy

Kilcoole hits double figures!

After the joyous occasion of finally finding the second nest, they just kept on coming! In the past three days, we have shot up from 1 to 18 nests -the season has truly taken off! Many of the nests have one egg, but are likely to add more to their clutch. Two ambitious Terns even have nests of three eggs.

Nest No.9 - a two egg clutch

With the cold wind and rain today, I made the executive decision not to enter the colony so the Terns could stay warming their eggs as much as possible. Much of the afternoon was spent in amusement watching Tern antics from the shelter of the bird-hide. For a bird so elegant in flight that they are nicknamed “swallows of the sea”, the Little Terns really lose their grace down on the shingle. They trip and fall trying to cross the stones on their short little legs, shakily holding out their wings for balance. Of course, when your bill is as long as your face it, is very difficult to look down and see how high you need to lift your little feet, so more than one Tern has ended up sprawled over the stones. Surprised, they scramble up, fold up their wings like nothing just happened, and preserver. Each time they slip and wobble, I wonder why they don’t just take to the air in graceful flight. Perhaps we can take a little something from their determination.

The hide doubles as watchtower and rain shelter

The courting behaviour observed the past week continues. Plenty of male Terns are landing with impressive and tasty fish to present as gifts to their prospective mates. This allows the female to judge whether her chicks will be well provided for: the more fish he can bring her, the more certain she can be of his hunting prowess and capabilities. Single-motherhood for a Tern would prove nearly impossible when she has to be incubating eggs on the shore and hunting sandeels at sea all at the same time. Extensive days of courtship cumulate in a little dancing ritual where the Terns turn their heads from side to side, the male still brandishing a fish, while the female crouches in her freshly dug scrape. After mating, the male waddles around his new mate in a few excited victory laps (until tripping over a pebble, as outlined above).

Young life has come to Kilcoole already…but not on the beach. A Mute Swan with one fluffy cygnet was swimming in the lagoon behind the colony yesterday afternoon, and a Mallard with ducklings last week. We are still waiting for the Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher breeding within the colony to hatch out something cute and fluffy. Some day soon.

Susan and Paddy

Egging on the Terns

After finding our first nest, we had a four day wait until finally, while telescoping out of the hide this morning, I saw a Little Tern carefully turning her eggs in the scrape before settling back to incubate. A short time later, her mate landed beside the nest with a sand eel that she gratefully snatched off him and swallowed. Little Terns will catch and carry back food to their incubating mates, a strategy that ensures the eggs are protected for as much time as possible. They will also take turns incubating the eggs, so either male or female might be sitting on the nest. A fair trade!

On seeing the Terns feeding each other, I knew to search for a nest and discovered a single egg. It is likely another egg, or perhaps even two more, will be laid by tomorrow. By the end of the day, we had found three nests, with an egg apiece, bringing us to a total of four nests and five eggs. Plenty more can be expected if the number of successful courtships this morning is anything to go by! A large number of Terns are digging out scrapes for nesting and sampling the shingle for good nesting sites. They are also becoming very defensive of their little territories – all sure signs for breeding.

The shore in Kilcoole supports many bird species along with the Terns. Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher are also breeding within the colony, while Whimbrel and Dunlin feed on the foreshore among the Terns. Last night, we were excited to have Declan Manley down to Kilcoole to ring Dunlin in the lagoon behind the colony. He set four nets in the lagoon during low tide hours and waited for the rising tide to push the waders into our nets. Just before dark, we had a successful catch, including this youngster, who is still too young to produce the breeding plumage worn by adults in the summer season.

One of Kilcoole's own Dunlin (S. Doyle)

More to come,

Susan and Paddy

Egg-citing news for Kilcoole!

After a week of hopeful waiting and scanning the shingle with our telescopes, our patience was rewarded yesterday. Just before dark, we spotted a Little Tern sitting among the stones while all the other Terns had gone to roost. She was sitting on two eggs, so we are delighted to announce our first Little Tern nest for the 2015 season!

Little Terns lay their eggs in shallow scrapes directly onto the shingle © Chris Dobson (picture taken under NPWS licence)

Last year’s Terns began laying on the 25^th of May due to very bad weather the week before. This year, the first nest was laid on the 21^st of May, four days earlier. However, even four days earlier, the Terns began nesting later than expected. Perhaps this is due to last week’s gale winds and heavy rain.

We have not come across a second nest since last night, but judging by the courting activity and the large number of Terns, we are expecting lots more! Our largest colony count this week was in and around 200 Terns. Hopefully many of these will choose to stay and nest in Kilcoole.  

Susan and Paddy

A colour-ring 'terns' up in Kilcoole!

Yesterday I spotted a Little Tern on the shingle with colour rings on its legs. It had a metal ring on the right leg and a yellow ring on the left. This colour combination is likely to be on a Tern ringed in the Isle of Man, where there are breeding Little Tern colonies on the Ayres to the north of the island. While I didn’t get a chance to read the inscription, hopefully I will get another chance in the coming days and we can find out more on this bird’s history.

Numbers of Terns are on the rise. Plenty of courting behaviour was observed  between showers today - see this photo of a male presenting his courtship gift to a discerning female. Other males have successfully wooed a mate and are prospecting potential abodes for their youngsters around the shingle.

Young love © Chris Dobson 

Although no Terns have laid eggs, the Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher are well on their way to parenthood. Three pairs of both Ringed Plover and  Oystercatcher have made the colony home and are already incubating eggs. Territory disputes are flaring up between the species – with plenty of panicky Ring Plovers valiantly defending their nests!

Protective parents © Chris Dobson

Susan and Paddy

A new season. A new hope.

The 2015 Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Scheme season began May 11^th with the arrival of the wardens and fenceposts. Just 30 Little Terns were waiting to greet us, but this number has slowly risen over the past week thanks to a strong southerly wind carrying Terns with it from Africa.

2014’s wardens, Andrew and Darren are continuing in their ornithological ways. Andrew has left the Little Terns to care for their Roseate cousins on Rockabil (terncoat!). You can keep up with his decent into madness on the Rockablog http://rockabillterns.blogspot.ie/. Darren has journeyed overseas to the sunny islands of Indonesia to study the island biogeography of Sunbirds, White-eyes, Flowerpeckers and probably some more, for his PhD in TCD. We wish them both the very best in their endeavours! 

Night warden Cole Macey will be with us for his 8^th season in Kilcoole and will hopefully bring the luck of last season back with him. The new day wardening team for 2015 are Susan Doyle and Paddy Manley - see more about us on "meet the team". East Coast Nature Reserve warden Jerry Wray will once again act as reserve warden, providing much needed cover and help putting the colony set up in place. Dr. Steve Newton of BirdWatch Ireland manages the Kilcoole project, as part of his hectic seabird schedule!

As per usual, the colony fence is put up once Little Terns show up in Kilcoole. We made great progress, getting both the fence and the bird hide up in just a matter of days thanks to the help of Chris, Declan and Cillian. Hopefully, Little Terns will take up residence in their shingle estate in the next week or so. 

Tern Wardens - Jerry, Paddy, Susan and co. © Chris Dobson

Last years first nest was discovered on May 25^th because bad weather delayed the Terns. Heavy rain and wind last week may cause the same situation this year. However, we have already marked two Ringed Plover and one Oystercatcher nest within the colony!

Susan and Paddy

Nest moving Terns dodge high tides

They’re back! The first Little Terns returned to Ireland last month and the first Little Tern was seen back in Kilcoole on the 19^th of April. It won’t be long before the wardens are back on site, the fences are up and the beautiful Little Terns start nesting again. Let’s hope that we have another bumper year in Kilcoole after last year’s record breaking season.

They're back! © Andrew Power and Peter Cutler (Picture taken under NPWS  licence) 

The return of the Little Terns has also been marked by the publication of a paper by the 2014 Kilcoole team in the latest issue of IrishBirds based on observations we took of a unique response by the Kilcoole Little Terns to a dangerous high tide. While we do everything in our power to protect the Little Terns in Kilcoole, some things are out of our control. A high spring tide allied with a strong easterly wind has the power to wash out an entire colony. This happened in 2012 at Kilcoole, destroying every nest. The terns that year didn't stand a chance as the tides were just too strong. The bad weather meant that 2012 was a particularly bad season for terns in Britain and Ireland but, luckily, terns can bounce back quickly when conditions are suitable (just look at the success of last year). Although high tides are an ever present danger to Little Tern colonies, last season the Little Terns showed us they are not completely helpless to the forces of nature.



Spring tides last year © Andrew Power

Last year high tides hit the colony during the peak of the breeding season. When the tide receded and we wardens could survey the damage, we feared the worst, with the seaweed line having been thrown over a large section of nests. Confirming these fears 12 nests had been completely washed away. However, to our surprise, 13 pairs of terns had managed to re-gather and move their clutches into new nest scrapes further up the beach after inundation by the tide. Though the movement of eggs into new nests has been observed in waders and waterfowl, most notably in the Piping Plover, this behaviour has never previously been recorded in a tern species.

We closely observed the outcome in these nests and unsurprisingly found that a significantly higher proportion of eggs from tide affected nests failed to hatch than from nests that were unaffected by the tide. The chill of the Irish Sea coupled with the mechanical damage caused by tide inundation were likely to have been (literally) a killer combination for the developing embryos within the eggs. However the 13 Little Tern pairs which had nests inundated by the tide still managed to produce 20 fledglings (out of 32 eggs in these nests). This was a remarkable achievement given the circumstances, attesting to the robustness of the tern eggs and adaptability of the parent birds, key attributes when living in an unpredictable environment.

We also observed this behavior from a pair of Ringed Plover earlier in the year. Unfortunately the eggs did not hatch but they gave themselves a fighting chance. That combined with the hard work of the wardens and volunteers will hopefully ensure a bright future for the birds in Kilcoole.

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

Blog post by

Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

The Big Year

We've been off site now for 2 weeks. It's hard to believe the season is over for another year, they grow up so fast! It's a strange feeling leaving our caravans after taking care of the Little Terns for the last 3 months. I'm still adjusting to normal hours and not chasing after crows! We couldn't be happier as the 2014 Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project was a phenomenal success. 120 breeding pairs of Little Terns graced Kilcoole this year which was a record. The previous highest was 106 pairs in 2006. 219 Little Tern chicks are presumed to have fledged this year and, you guessed it, this was also a record. The numbers this year have been off the charts, literally. We had to manually reset the maximum number allowed when making a graph showing the numbers of Little Terns in Kilcoole since 1985!

 

 

Kilcoole Little Tern feeding fledgling © Peter Cutler

 



They grow up so fast! © Peter Cutler 

2014 was also a special year because we were lucky enough to be the first wardens to colour ring Little Terns in Kilcoole. We were set a goal by the powers that be to colour ring 50 Little Terns chicks. We ringed 135! That's 60% of the Little Tern chicks in Kilcoole. But what is really special is the information that this will give us. We have already started to reap the rewards as one of the Kilcoole fledglings has been resighted. On the 10th of August a Little Tern fledgling with a green colour ring on it's left leg (a Kilcoole bird!) was sighted on Hilbre Island in the Dee estuary on the England/Wales border. This is about 190 kilometres from Kilcoole! This "recovery" sheds further light on how these birds move around the Irish Sea before going back to West Africa. Don't worry they are not going the wrong way, there is obviously no rush for these birds to get back to their wintering grounds. We hope this is the first of many resightings.

http://hilbrebirdobs.blogspot.ie/2014/08/10th-august-2014.html



They never even said goodbye!

While the Little Terns finished hatching a couple of weeks before we wrapped up there was still Ringed Plover eggs left on the beach. The day after all the fencing was taken down we checked the last remaining Ringed Plover nest and we were delighted it hatched! Ringed Plover chicks are fast and mobile the day they are born so they should be just fine. It was a good year for Ringed Plovers with 15 nesting attempts. 29 chicks hatched but it's very difficult to keep track of how many fledged as they are so mobile but we did see good numbers of hefty fledglings feeding in the lagoons. There was also 3 pairs of Oystercatchers in Kilcoole this year. 7 chicks hatched but, like the Ringed Plover, it is difficult to say how well they did. With the Oystercatcher and Ringed Plovers joining the Little Terns you can imagine the beach was very busy and very noisy this year!

 

Bigfoot, one of the last Ringed Plover chicks to hatch this year © Saoirse O'Neill and Andrew Power



Kilcoole Oystercatcher with young © Andrew Power

So there you have it, a record year in Kilcoole. We would like to thank everyone involved in the project this year from those of you reading the blog, to the local people of Kilcoole, our volunteers and to everyone who visited us this year. The support for this project has been nothing short of overwhelming. Thank you. Roll on 2015, records are made to be broken!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Andrew Power and Darren O'Connell

Tales from the Crypt

The project has finished. The fencing has been taken down and the wardens are off site. We are delighted that 2014 has been the most successful year on record for Little Terns in Kilcoole. I will be doing a blog post very soon with all the numbers and details of this excellent season. The following blog post has been written by Cole Macey, the night warden here in Kilcoole. I am sure that one of the major reasons for the success of this project has been because the involvement of Cole over the past 7 seasons. The graveyard shift can be a difficult and lonely job and it is vital to the success of the project. His blog post takes us through a typical night shift and nicely summarises the project from start to finish. Enjoy.


Good mornin' Kilcoole! and to all you bloggers out there. Night warden Macey here (put that light out there's a war on!). My hours of duty are from 22:00 to 06:00. At 22:00 I take over from the day warden and the day warden takes over from me again at 06:00. We have a few mins of briefing re: any observations on activity taken place on my watch and then its good luck! The colony colours are red and black and the colony motto is "always alert, always ready". Each year we are proud to fly the colours and strictly stand by our motto. The first 2 weeks consist of bringing in all the fencing materials, signs, water bowser, portaloo and the 3 caravans across the causeway to set up camp for another project year. A tidy camp is a happy camp and a happy camp has a knock on effect to being a well run and managed project.

Cole Macey setting up fencing at start of year © Andrew Power

The nights fly by. The secret is not to clock watch. The moon, stars and sunrise (unless it's coming down in stair rods) are all good indicators of time of night/day. Even without the parish lantern the streetlights from Kilcoole (northwest) and Wicklow town (south) are enough to give you good vision. The night without cloud cover will become dark at 23:00 becoming light at 03:15 (mid June). In fact for 2 weeks in mid June the northeast horizon at sea (if clear) will always have light. When the project is up and running the day warden hands over to night warden and vice versa the next morning. The project runs like clockwork and so it should after all these years. A mighty help though is to have the same team back year after year depending on their own commitments (we are only seasonal fieldworkers). The day wardens stay focused and alert, the night warden does the same during the vampire shift. Total commitment with good communication betweeen the 3 wardens for 3 and a half months is the secret to a successful project. We cannot dictate the weather or stop the sea, just look at the 2012 wipeout when all the eggs were taken by high tides and no chicks hatched, but everything else that falls in our remit we are ready for (ish!). Thankfully this year has been a relatively quite one for me. No foxes, feral cats, hedgehogs or mink during the night. Even the corvids at first light have behaved themselves after putting manners on them. I think I deserve this year after the commitment and worry of the last 6 years as to what night predators could be out there. 

Some nights can be as flat as a witch's what's its name. Other nights have the magic that a camera could not capture. For example, in June a full moon shimmers across the open sea to the east. The lights of Kilcoole dance across the still lagoon silhouetting 8 swans amongst a spooky mist. A mother and 3 Otter cubs playing and feeding in the lagoon just below the camp to the west. A Long-eared Owl silently passes through the camp looking for the many small mammals along the railway embankment. Time 2:30, seek and ye shall find.

Looking at Kilcoole village across the still lagoon © Andrew Power

 

Kilcoole Otter © Niall Keogh

 

On another night on the 22nd of July a thick fog descended on the beach. A radio was placed at the north end of the buffer zone on a Radio 4 chat show. The radio was left on until the fog lifted at 02:00. This was just to keep predators guessing until the fog lifted. Every so often you go into the camp for a brew or 2 and a quick bite to eat. Keep the stomach happy and the mind is then happy (many a battle has been lost when the human soul is at it's lowest ebb during the early hours of the morning) but while in the camp you still listen out for the tell tale signs of trouble. Each bird on the shingle or on the mudflats of the breaches lagoon have their own alarm/distress call from the Little Terns, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher on the to beach to the Curlew, Heron, Egret, Lapwing and Swan on the mudflats. The night warden then responds.

Always alert, always ready. View from Cole's caravan.

 

Kilcoole Little Egret © Niall Keogh

 

Then there are the early mornings. Sunrise is something else to behold. Firstly a crimson red sky, then slowly up she rises, then bang a big golden gong. Couple this with the calm sea lapping the shoreline and a golden path straight to the colony. This is the tern hour. Just before the light comes the terns chatter amongst themselves up down the colony, north to south, south to north, but now at sunrise all the adults go out to sea fishing to bring food back to feed the hungry chicks. A very busy start to the day inside the colony. There is an old saying "time and tide wait for no man but here at world's end staring out to sea time does stand to still" (keep a weather eye on the horizon).

 The last week of the project I will revert back to days. The flexi net fence, electric fence, signs and string fence are all taken down in a particular order until there is nothing left. Everything reverts back to normal. The wardens path becomes public again, Kilcoole residents, visitors and dogs a like have the run of the entire beach again. Until we return again the following year with the Little Terns and strike camp and everything goes back across the camp in reverse order.



Packing up for another season © Niall Keogh



The wardens path becomes public again © Niall Keogh

 

And there we are playmates. I do hope you have enjoyed the quick glance through the night warden window on a typical project year. Take care out there, catch you on the next orbit. 

Au revoir,

Cole Macey

The last egg and the Norwegian Blue Parrot

We're delighted to announce that the last Little Tern egg has hatched. 111 Little Tern pairs successfully hatched young this year, more than any other year since the project began. We have a total of 213 chicks, most of which have fledged. Little Tern numbers in the colony are noticeably smaller as they start to leave the colony so the season is well and truly winding down. The only small concern we have is a Peregrine Falcon that pays the colony a visit every other day, we've seen it take at least 3 birds this year but given how quick they are the number is likely to be higher. However we are not too worried as they do not take many and it would be foolish to think that we can protect every individual.



Kilcoole Little Tern fledgling © Cian Cardiff 

 

The Otters have been ever present this year and we often watch them hunt and play from our caravans. They seem to be particularly fond of crabs, munching loudly on them all night. Birds appear to be on the move now and we've had good numbers of Black-tailed Godwits, Curlew and Common Sandpipers  show up in the lagoon. Willow Warblers can be seen passing through the Buckthorn and a pair of Wheatear were spotted in the colony yesterday. We were also lucky to see a Red Kite glide past the farmland last week. Yesterday our first Clouded Yellow of the year in Kilcoole made an appearance. Clouded Yellows are a migrant butterfly that comes all the way from Spain/North Africa. Some years they can be very scarce and some can be just the opposite, like the Waxwing, so here's hoping we have a good Clouded Yellow year. They are unmistakeable bright yellow butterflies that are a joy to see.





An otter (not the Loch Ness Monster) eating a crab outside the caravans © Andrew Power

 

Wheatear on the fence © Cian Cardiff

 

 Clouded Yellow © Andrew Power  

In recent years in Kilcoole we leave a little joke around the colony. Last year we put a plastic owl on a fencepost near the caravans. It was almost heart breaking telling excited onlookers that it was plastic! One year on our species board we had Unicorn listed. To our surprise this did catch one person out! This year we went for a more subtle approach. On our species board we listed "Norwegian Blue Parrot (dead)". This was lost on most people and it didn't seem worth it. We had many people asking us where we saw it and how it got here. But it was all worthwhile (to me anyway) when I saw a couple of people delighted with themselves after getting the joke. After which the flood gates opened and more and more passers by gave me their approval. The parrot is a reference to the infamous Dead Parrot Sketch performed by the legendary Monty Python gang - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218. And it wasn't dead, it was resting.

Norwegian Blue Parrot (bottom right)

Unsung heroes: Volunteers

There are 5 Little Tern eggs left to hatch in Kilcoole and 212 chicks of all sizes. It is an excellent time to come and visit the colony as there are fledglings everywhere learning to fly and hunt. We have counted a minimum of 86 fledglings on site which is excellent, we suspect some of the older chicks (Juggernaut and friends) have moved out of the colony to somewhere else along the east coast, or beyond. Many of the chicks are pretty advanced and have darker crowns than their younger cousins. They're still a bit clumsy in the air and haven't mastered the art of diving like their parents. We often see them hunting close to the surface and then bellyflop into the water after a fish without success. However, Little Terns learn quickly and they will be making their way to Africa, for the first time, very soon. The Bray airshow was on recently with many of the planes practising in the Kilcoole area, it was amazing to see but even the most elaborate aerial displays by the stunt planes were no match for the grace and aerial prowess of the Little Terns! We are delighted with the progress of the terns and so far everything is going according to plan. Touch Wood. 

Kilcoole Little Tern © Chris Dobson

It has been very exciting to be involved in a record year and we are extremely grateful to our volunteers for all their hard work and dedication. Since the project began in May we have had an overwhelming response from volunteers and their help has been integral to the successful running of this project. What is incredible is the contrast in our volunteers. We have teenagers fresh from doing the Junior Cert to old age pensioners helping us out on the beach. We also have volunteers that are expert birdwatchers and skilled researchers in wildlife conservation as well as volunteers who are beginners and don't even possess a pair of binoculars. One of our volunteers Seán Kelly is a PhD student in Trinity College Dublin and was recently the centre of media attention after the publication of his paper in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. Seán has spent the last few years looking at bird speciation in Indonesia and his paper classes the Wakatobi Flowerpecker as a full species for the first time! Like all great discoveries this story ended up on the cover of the Metro newspaper, it also appeared in the Irish Times, Independent and countless websites and Seán was interviewed on the radio and television. We were all delighted at how well Seán's work has been received and we had more than a few members of the public asking us in Kilcoole about the Wakatobi Flowerpecker. For the full story and a link to the paper check out this article - http://www.headstuff.org/2014/06/reclassification-bird-species-matters-introducing-wakatobi-flowerpecker/wakatobi-flowerpecker-nlb/. Another volunteer, Des Higgins, was also in the limelight recently as he was named as one of the most "influential names in science" and in the world's top 3,000 researchers for his work on the Bioinformatics tool Clustal. Find out more here - http://www.ucd.ie/news/2014/07JUL14/020714-Two-UCD-researchers-among-most-influential-names-in-science-according-to-Thomson-Reuters.html. Des had to get a taxi down when he volunteered last time as he thought we would be late, dedication!

Ignore the jail and hammer headline! 

Volunteer Seán Kelly looking very smart!

Volunteers Des and Aoife Higgins with tern warden Andrew Power © Niall Keogh

Many of our volunteers are students in Tralee, Cork and Dublin etc. who are trying to put their summer to good use and we also have volunteers from a wide range of occupations who squeeze in some hours at weekends or after work. Some people go to great lengths to get here spending hours on public transportation and walking to get here and occasionally helping out in horrid weather (we don't expect this from everyone!). There has also been a multicultural array of volunteers this year with people from France, Lithuania, Peru and Poland (to name but a few) helping us out! All of our volunteers do share one thing in common and that is they have all helped in the conservation of a beautiful and endangered bird as it does not matter who you are or how qualified you are you can still play an important role in this project. Regardless if someone has helped out for an hour or for a whole season we are extremely grateful and we would find it very difficult without the help! We are also particularly grateful to the volunteers that donate chocolate to the project. Last week I carefully left a KitKat chunky in the Buckthorn so I could run off and do something else. When I returned it was gone, I was convinced it had been stolen until I caught a glimpse of the shiny foil of the packaging in the corner of my eye. A rat had taken my KitKat and devoured it, devastation and surely one of the biggest losses of the year in Kilcoole. After hearing my tale of woe a volunteer generously donated some chocolate to the project. So there you have it, volunteers, what a great bunch they are. Thank you.

P.S Our e-mail account littletern@birdwatchireland.ie stopped working recently, we are trying to fix it. Apologies for any inconvenience caused, you can e-mail me at powera2@tcd.ie.

Andrew Power

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