It was a clear, bright and very windy day as we trundled along the beach on our way to meet EMS and the team of wardens to find and mark Little Tern chicks. Two years ago there had been more than 50 of a suitable size to be ringed with darvics, although last year had been a disaster with an eventual mass desertion and there had been no attempt to ring any of the birds.
As we slowly walked the beach it became increasingly clear that this appeared to be another poor year. Apart from a handful of juveniles that had already fledged there were just a few very small chicks, too small to take a ring, with 4 that could be marked and some nests still with eggs. The Black-headed gull numbers looked to be on the increase and their colony was rather too close to where the terns were nesting.
We were seeing adults bringing food in, and I hope that perhaps there are more nests and young in an area away from where we checked, although that doesn't seem very likely. There is a second colony that wasn't looked at and we hope that there will be more youngsters not far from fledging there.
Our time was limited and we ended having marked just 4 birds. An Oystercatcher chick was a bonus.
Total: 5
Little Tern - 4
Oystercatcher - 1