Rook, Line and Sinker...

It's a beautiful day here in Kilcoole and this week has seen a few interesting developments. The Little Terns continue to exhibit copulation and territorial behaviours, and each day we find more incubating birds. Unfortunately, last week the colony was subjected to an intrusion from a few Rooks, and 8 nests were lost. However, the colony continues to grow, with the current number of active nests at 107!

A view of the hide from the pedestrian pathway.

To deter the crows from any future attempts to nab Little Tern eggs, Ken the Mannequin (so, ManneKen I 'spose?) has been installed at the northern end of the north colony. He stands to attention 24/7, rain, hail or shine, without food or rest... fueled only by the need for vigilance. 

   

   

Ken always knew he was meant for a purpose greater than posing in shop window displays in the latest CK y-fronts.

We have some exciting news to share: the first Oystercatcher nest in the colony has hatched, so we have adorable little Oystercatcher chicks running around! Though we haven't managed to capture a photograph just yet, we'll be sure to post one when we can. They're surprisingly hard to sneak up on!

The colony also supports a few Ringed Plover nests. Ringed Plover eggs are distinguished from Little Tern eggs due mainly to their pointed ends (and also, you'll usually find a Ringed Plover feigning a broken wing in the vicinity, in the hopes of distracting you, "the predator," from their brood). Below are a few photos comparing the eggs of Little Terns, Oystercatchers and Ringed Plovers.

A clutch of Little Tern eggs. This clutch is complete at a max of 3 eggs. Photo taken under NPWS licence.

A clutch of Oystercatcher eggs, which in reality are considerably larger than those of Little Terns or Ringed Plovers. Photo taken under NPWS licence.

A Ringed Plover nest. Photo taken under NPWS licence.

                                    

There are over 200 Little Terns here at Kilcoole, doing their best to look after their clutches. Though there has been a couple of days of poor weather, and predators pose a threat, the Terns are dutifully incubating their eggs. They are the smallest breeding tern in Ireland, but they are not defenceless... here is a video of them swooping and diving on a poor Oystercatcher whom they felt annoyed by!

Footage recorded under NPWS license.

No Stone Left Un-Terned...

Hello Kilcoole colony followers! Apologies for the delay in updates- we’ve had an incredibly busy and unusually quick start to the season. The site wardens and volunteers have been kept on their toes by the frenzy of terns that have settled into their scrapes. The day wardens, Chris and Irene, have spent from dawn ‘til dusk checking nests for incubation; locating newly discovered nests; and checking numbers of eggs. The night wardens have been dutifully protecting the terns from nocturnally active predators, such as the Red Fox, and have ensured that the fencing is so secure, even Andy Dufresne wouldn't get past it.

The Kilcoole site is extraordinarily beautiful and supports a wealth of biodiversity. The wardens’ accommodation is situated right beside a lagoon, from which spectacular sunsets can be observed. The stretch of shingle beach opposite this lagoon, between Kilcoole and Newcastle, is an extremely important breeding grounds for the Little Terns, and so has been protected by Birdwatch Ireland since 1985. 

The lagoon on which the warden's accommodation is located.

The process of finding nests at Kilcoole can be a challenge- the stretch of beach on which the terns lay is comparable to a Where’s Wally book. The tern eggs blend in seamlessly with the shingle, and great care must be taken when walking through the colony (quite literally, walking on eggshells to make sure you don’t walk on eggshells!). The nests are located using a telescope from the hide, and binoculars when walking alongside the colony. below are a couple of images through the scope of Little Terns incubating their eggs.

A Little Tern incubating (1): taken by Andrew McManus under NPWS licence

A Little Tern incubating (2): taken by Andrew McManus under NPWS license

We’re very excited by this year’s numbers. The weather so far has been in the terns’ favour (hopefully won’t jinx that now) and the number of incubated nests is high, so plenty of positives. If you find yourself down around Kilcoole, feel free to ask the wardens on duty any questions you may have on the colony. Our on-site blackboards (updated daily) feature the latest in the colony news bulletin (titled “The Daily Page Terner,”) and also provide a list of species spotted in the locality, to which we would be delighted to add your sightings and contributions.

Stay tuned for our next installation, which will feature some notes on Little Tern biology and more photos, as well as updates on the colony's progress!

First Milestone Reached

Hello again

I promised an update on numbers earlier this afternoon.

We have just marked our 100th Little Tern nest in the main colony of which between 80 and 85 are being incubated. The losses are mostly attributable to Hooded Crows and maybe Turnstones or Starlings; one or two have been abandoned.

In the south colony 13 Little Tern nests have been located of which 11 are presently active.

Nesting in among the terns are at least 3 pairs of Ringed Plover and 3 pairs of Oystercatcher.

Finally, all the local Mute Swan pairs have hatched broods and we have seen families of 2, 4 and 7 cygnets.

Steve

2017 - Up and Running

Hello readers

The new breeding season at Kilcoole is well underway and this is a brief update to introduce you to the new team running the project.

Our day wardens are  Chris Johnson and Irene Sullivan backed up by Andrew Butler and Niamh FitzGerald.

The night shift is covered by Cole Macey and Angus Lee.

Additionally, also on site is Andrew McManus (Zoology, Trinity College Dublin) who will be undertaking some research on Little Terns for his undergraduate dissertation.

Hovering in the background are Steve Newton at BirdWatch Ireland HQ and Conservation Ranger Jason Monaghan from the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

All these folk will introduce themselves on these pages in the coming weeks and we will also highlight the input of several key volunteers.

We have had a very busy start to the year with our first Little Tern eggs discovered on the very early date of Sunday 14th May.

We now have two sub-colonies, the traditional one north of the Breaches and a secondary one south of the Breaches. Both are now protected by the usual "string" (buffer area) and electric fences to protect Little Tern nests and eggs.

A full tally of nests and interesting observations will be posted soon.

Steve

One of the first Little Tern nests of the season. Can you see the egg? Photo taken by Niamh FitzGerald (under NPWS licence)

Goodbye, until next year!

Today we are saying goodbye earlier that usual as the final pair of Little Terns left the area yesterday. It appears that the majority of adults and fledglings have moved up to Baltray, as reports are coming in of colour ringed fledglings that were ringed here at Kilcoole. Most evenings last week there was a roosting flock of around 86 birds at Baltray.

Little Tern Fishing
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty) 

The fencing has been taken down now, as the birds have completely finished nesting for the year and the roosting flock no longer needs its protection either. We would still urge beach goers to keep a careful eye out when walking on the shingle as there are still Ringed Plover chicks hidden amongst the pebbles.

Little Tern chick almost ready to fledge
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

This season didn't go too well for the Little Terns here. Although we started off well, with over 150 nests, it all went downhill from there. Halfway through June we had a troublesome fox who made its way into the colony one night, and helped itself to over 40 nests and countless chicks! At the south colony, a mixture of foxes and human disturbance lead to a complete failure of this colony, which had 35 nests. On top of this all this, there was a shortage of food for the chicks late in the season, this lead to a high mortality rate among chicks, even those close to fledging age. This was a similar story to what was seen on Rockabill and other Tern colonies on the east coast.

Little Tern chicks just after hatching
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

In the end, around 50 Little Tern chicks managed to fledge from the colony, which is significantly below average for this site. Last year there was a staggering 293 chicks fledged! There was also around 20 Ringed Plover chicks fledged from the colony as well, but unfortunately out of the 3 Oystercatcher nests we had, no chicks survived to fledged.

Ringed Plover chicks are very well camouflaged in the shingle
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

We had a total of 126 species of bird seen in the area since the project started back in May, including Hobby, Glossy Ibis, Great White Egret, Cuckoo, Short-Eared Owl, Long-Eared Owl, Red Kite and Great Skua. Apart from the birdlife, we also saw 8 species of Butterfly, including Ringlet and Small Heath. We have also seen Otter, Viviparous Lizard, Harbour Porpoise, Bottle-nosed Dolphin and  a Grey Seal dining on a Ray.

Little Tern bringing in fish for a chick
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

We would like to thank all of our volunteers that helped us throughout the season this year and all of the public who use the beach around the colony for your continued interest and support for this project.

Little Tern attacking a warden!
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

-Paddy and Kevin

Fledglings at Kilcoole

We were sad to say goodbye to Em who had to leave the project at the end of June to go to a new contract. She is off to the South Atlantic to work with Albatrosses on Gough Island. Kevin has now joined the team, moving down from Baltray, which had an unsuccessful year with no Little Terns attempting to breed and has been delighted to begin working on the colony.

We have had our first fledged Little Tern last week, the first chick was seen making short flights inside the colony on the 3rd of July. After many hours of practicing in the relative security of the colony, this little guy built up the confidence and strength to make his first flight out to sea on the 4th of July. Since then, more and more of the chicks have fledged every day. We now see 15-20 chicks roosting with the adult terns and learning how to fish just offshore. The first of our fledglings have started to move off as they are not reliant on their parents for food or protection any longer. These fledglings will fly up and down the coast looking for other potential nesting sites for when they become mature. Once they get the lay of the land they will begin flocking up and heading south to the west of Africa where they will spend their first two years before coming back to breed in 2018.

Little Tern chick almost ready to fledge
 Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

 Meanwhile, the last of the eggs have hatched, with the final chick hatching on the 7th July. The new chicks have all left their nests now making it difficult for us to monitor them. Our careful patrols reveal that we still have about 15 unfledged chicks that are still under care from their parents. Unfortunately, 1-2 dead chicks were discovered daily during last weeks patrols of the foreshore. These chicks were aged between 3 and 10 days old and had no visible physical damage to the body leading the wardens to believe that they may have starved to death. This has been a constant theme for the past two or three weeks now and one of the reasons why our fledgling numbers are so low this year. The other main reason is due to heavy fox predation on one early morning. This fox is the main reason that the south colony, which hatched 50 chicks, was completely wiped out.

Little Tern flock at roost Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

Despite the predation and lack of food available, the number of Tern chicks that have made it to fledgling stage is still a notable amount. We estimate that at least 40 chicks have already fledged, and possibly another 15 to fledge in the coming weeks.

Little Tern flock dreading Taken under NPWS licence (K Delahunty)

-Paddy and Kevin

Egg-cellent Camouflage!!

Today we want to introduce you to some of our breeding pairs of Little Terns and their nests. Each pair will lay between one and three eggs over the course of four days, which they incubate for around 25 days. They won’t start this properly until the last egg is laid. Usually eggs are laid in a small hole or ‘scrape’ which their parents have dug out with their legs. Often a pair will have made several of these scrapes, and then decide which they will move into. They can be seen early in the season walking together from one scrape to the next, quite clearly house hunting.

Like many seabirds, Little Terns don’t put much effort into their nest. They lay their eggs straight onto the beach, either on sand or shingle. 

A nest in shingle Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

A nest on sand Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

This may seem careless but Tern eggs are perfectly camouflaged to blend into their surroundings, so they are very difficult for predators (or Wardens!) to find. Their camouflage is so good that adults will occasionally end up incubating a pebble by mistake!

 Accidental rock adoption... Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

One of our pairs this year has laid a very strange egg. It is white all over and has no markings or speckles. Most eggs are either brown or grey and are covered in mottles. It will be interesting to see what happens!

A completely white egg, very unusual Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

One peculiar habit of some Little Terns is that they will ornament their nests. They decorate their scrapes, usually by carrying in pale coloured pebbles and surrounding their eggs with them. Sometimes they will also drag in nearby twigs or seaweed.  

A nest decorated with pebbles Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

A nest decorated with twigs and grass Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

The colony is doing well, with 68 chicks and 231 eggs still left to hatch! June is the perfect time of year to come and see them. We are always around to answer any questions you have.

Welcome to the world! Taken under NPWS licence (P Manley)

- Paddy and Em