A COLONY in the North East of one of the UK’s rarest seabirds has bounced back from a disastrous breeding season last year to produce record number of youngsters.
The little tern colony at Crimdon Denemouth beach on the County Durham Coast has, in recent years, been one of the most productive in the country. Thanks to a partnership of organisations led by the Industry Nature Conservation Association (INCA), the colony has been able to thrive at a time when others elsewhere in the country have repeatedly failed.
However, last year’s colony was hit hard when kestrels took virtually all the chicks.
But this year the colony has rallied to produce 147 young.
INCA little tern voluntary warden Trevor Stephenson said: “I was not really looking forward to the 2011 nesting season after last year’s disastrous results. “Last year, we saw a record number of little terns nest on their traditional site at Crimdon Denemouth only to have nearly all their chicks taken and eaten by a pair of kestrels.
“I could not have faced that again, it was enough to make a man weep to see these little birds, having flown all the way from Africa only to have all their chicks predated.”
This year’s success was down in part to the impact of winter which saw rocks and debris deposited on the beach, providing places in which the birds could hide their chicks.
Then in May volunteers erected a fence on the beach to protect the terns from being trampled or being taken by dogs.
The team kept watch to ensure that the birds were not disrupted during the crucial nesting period.
Their efforts were helped when the kestrels did not re-appear.
Trevor said: “We waited with trepidation but it has turned out to be a record year with 84 birds raising 147 young.”
Geoff Barber, from INCA, said: “It has been a very successful year for the little terns.
“We are grateful to our industrial sponsors Able UK, who make the wardening possible, and all the volunteers from Durham County, Durham Heritage Coast, National Trust, Natural England, Hartlepool Rangers, BTCV and others who turn out each year to help us to put up the fence.
“Credit must also go to Trevor, along with Derek Brown and Bill Sutherland, who spend endless hours looking over the site and informing the hundreds of visitors from across the country what is going on here on the beach.”
INCA is funded by Teesside Industry to work on their behalf to promote nature conservation in the area.
There are fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs of little terns in Britain and the species has been in decline for the past 30 years.
Volunteers like Trevor Stephenson and Derek Brown give up their summers to safeguard the colony, and are aided by a group of like-minded helpers. The birds, which winter on the west coast of Africa, began to establish a nesting colony on Crimdon beach in the mid-1990s.
But the spot they chose is near several caravan sites and is also heavily used by dog walkers, families and for a range of leisure pursuits.
Each May the volunteers fence off the 250-metre long and 50-metre wide area of beach used by the nesting birds, put up information panels and hand out leaflets from their base hut to beach users.
Trevor, a retired pit mechanic from Blackhall Colliery in County Durham, said: “It is an unbelievably busy part of the beach. I have counted 60 dog walkers in a few hours.
“Then there are the kids playing football, and other users like wind surfers and kite flyers.”
The aim of the volunteers is to try to keep disturbance of the birds to a minimum. He added: “This is a very important colony and when the situation is explained to them most people are very supportive.
“It is the Manchester United of little tern colonies.”
