This week has seen numbers of fledglings surge every day. From counts in single figures last week there are now at a total of 110 fledglings as of today (9th Jul).

If you would like to join in the counts please head down to the Gronant visitor center and ask the warden a few hours before high tide. A few pairs of eyes makes the counts more accurate as the fledglings can be hard to spot from a distance along the beach. It is a fun challenge but also a very important one as this is the main measure of how successful the breeding season has been!

On a different note please take a look at the new UK Little Tern Project website, a legacy of the Life project which finished earlier this year - www.littleternproject.org.uk

The weather has improved lately and this is good timing for the chicks which now roam the beach and dunes at Gronant. Around 250 chicks have been metal-ringed this season, by far the highest ever, hopefully a sign of good things to come. A lesser number have also been colour-ringed for future resightings. At present the chicks are anything but easy to spot, sensible really. See the photo below for one hiding in the prickly Sea Holly for safety. The next couple of weeks will be crucial for those chicks to make it to fledging without being predated or affected by bad weather. There was hushed rumors today that the first chick had fledged, when it was seen to take a short flight down the beach. Great news!

There is always a flip side and that is that the Kestrel was seen to take a chick to feed on in the dunes. We are putting out food on the diversionary feeding station for the Kestrel which is working to some extent but not always and we need volunteers to come and do a predator watch in case it comes back. Please please please consider popping down for an hour or two to help out over the next couple of weeks.

Finally, the dunes are a riot of colour at the moment, largely thanks to the thousands of Pyramidal Orchids which have spring up from the sand. This makes the walk down to the colony all the more enjoyable, we've had just as many comments about the plants as the birds lately!

It's been a week of mass hatching, with almost all of the first nest attempts now turned from smooth eggs, into fluffy, helpless bundles. Miraculously, the bad weather last week didn't cause too many issues, other than a few buried nests. Now the weather has improved, just in time! Right on cue though, the Kestrel is getting seen more often. They are not stupid and will be able to detect the chicks from quite a distance. All eyes will be on the lookout for any Kestrel advances in the coming few weeks.

A rather special Little Tern sporting Yellow ZBA colour-ring has been recorded tending 3 eggs. This male bird was originally ringed as a chick by Professor David Norman of the Merseyside Ringing Group in 1993 before having a colour-ring added in 2018, also by David, when it set a new world record for longevity. It is now back for its 26th year, still making it the oldest known Little Tern in the world, ever. A nice little coincidence, it was refound on father's day of all days. We are so pleased to have this bird back. It has made looking through hours of footage from nest cameras by students and volunteers from the tern group so very worthwhile!

The update from today's (29/05) clutch count was that there are now 148 nests and 393 eggs. We are nearly at the peak and it is only eight days since the first nest was found. The average clutch size is also looking healthy at 2.67, the second highest on record! With this many nests to care for if you feel like spending a few hours down at the colony please come down and help keep watch over this ever-growing population. Now's a great time to see them with constant bird activity around the beach.

We are hoping numbers rise this year thanks to productive breeding over the last few seasons and high numbers of fledglings being produced. Last year's pair total was 171, so things are looking promising for an even higher total this year. Fingers and toes crossed.

The tern group attended the RSPB Conwy Bioblitz last weekend which went down well. Thanks to everyone who came and chatted about Little Terns, we even had a few new people join the group, welcome to you all! The group will also be attending the Nant Clwyd-y-dre Nature Day at Ruthin on Saturday June 8th so if you are in the area please do pop in! There will be a multitude of conservation organisations there  including Cofnod, BTO, Denbighshire Countryside Services and the Clwydian AONB team. The grounds of Nant Clwyd-y-dre are beautiful and deserving of a wander around in their own right.

With the site now fully installed and the wardens starting, it is exciting to see so many Little Terns back in the area. In the glorious weather over the weekend 138 adults were counted roosting on the beach, flying over the mirror-like seas and around the breeding pens. Courtship has been observed with some scraping following. Look out for the courtship flights in which the pair fly closely in tandem in an impressive arc through the sky. Occasionally they forget people are watching and fly right past, transfixed on each other!

With the onset of wardening, this is a great time to get involved, at the start of the season. Any members of the group and public are invited to assist the wardens with their duties. Any help is gratefully received and will continue to support this, the last (and therefore most important!) colony in Wales.

It was a busy week for those that helped put up the fencing and we are pleased to say it has all gone up in time. A big thanks to everyone who helped, it literally couldn't be done without your support. This really was a joint effort between Denbighshire Countryside Services, the North Wales Little Tern Group, the RSPB, Bangor University students and more. With this marvelous effort, more pens were put up than ever, covering as much suitable habitat as possible. We really have given the terns the best chance.

Whilst most of the major work has been done there is a little fine-tuning still underway to make the pens and structures shipshape for the season ahead, so if you would like to help out come down to the site from 10am onwards on Weds (8th) or Thurs (9th) this week.

Little Terns have been regularly seen with up to 40 present over high tide. They are not always around at the moment as there are no nests but given some time they can still be seen over the sea or around the shoreline.

In case you missed it, here's the link to the episode that includes showing the NWLTG at work back in 2018 with Derek the Weatherman - Click here

The following is from facebook following the end of season event, a run-down of what went on!

"Finally found time to check in again to let you know the NWLTG AGM was well attended on Friday, with 28 members in all. Thank you everyone for making the effort to be there. It was an interesting meeting, with a lots of enthusiasm, as to be expected! ;) Main topics, 'life after Life +' and the 'loss' of the Life+ Officer post and fundraising options. We gained 5 new members too!

The End of Season event also went well, with more folk coming along. This year's three wardens Sasha T, Frances Mac and Marie D talked about the events of the season, though Marie didn't mention her 'shark attack'! ;) Even when you've been 'following' events throughout the year it's good to hear it all in chronological order as a presentation.
Henry C (Life+ Public Engagement Officer) spoke about colour ringing and re-sightings. Lots of interesting findings this year, as he managed to devote a lot of hours to this activity (as did Jack S our previous Life+ Officer). Having GoPro cameras on nests was beneficial in this aspect too. Let's hope all the effort can be reciprocated in the future, to improve our understanding of these wee birds.
Professor David Norman (Bird Ringer extraordinaire!) talked about the planned Gronant Little Tern Tracking Project, and how the tracking worked, which should also enhance our knowledge about Little Terns. We are hoping to commence Geolocator tracking next year.
Patrick K (Treasurer) spoke about the achievements of the group this year, and mentioned our Geolocator sponsorship programme, and we gained our very first Geolocator sponsor! Thank you Brian I!
Sue Rendell-Reid (Manager of the Life+ Little Tern Recovery Project) spoke about the project. It's amazing the diversity of 'obstacles' affecting the birds up and down the country - from different types of predation to coastal erosion. It's good to know successful tactical information is shared between the colonies.























Photo of the new Little Tern mural by Sasha T (image courtesy of @penrhynbirder)

Sash T 'unveiled' her Little Tern mural which you will see on the side of the Visitor Centre next year. Thank you very much Sasha, a brilliant achievement! The time and effort you put into this is much appreciated and I'm sure the mural will be enjoyed by the visitors to Gronant for years to come!

Sadly our much anticipated surprise 'scoop' didn't go according to plan (does any meeting ever go smoothly?) and the voice-over, by Iolo Williams, and recorded by Marie D, was a silent affair. :( I spoke to him last night (at Theatr Colwyn) and he said he'd heard the meeting was a "very quiet do"! I thought he knew about the 'malfunction' but he went on to say "no dancing on the tables" etc. Don't know who told him that, lol! Anyway, all is not lost and we are hoping to find a way to share the voice-over with members at a future date.

I wanted to recognize the fact that it was the first season that we'd ever had three female wardens, and presented them each with a bouquet of flowers, in a vase, as a memento. I didn't manage to find vases with Little Terns etched onto them, but they did have flowers and Dragonflies! ;) Henry C received a Birds of Thailand book (he's off there on holiday soon) to recognize the fact he's the last EU Life+ officer. :( Adrian H received a framed photo of a Little Tern, to remind him of his years' as a 'Countryside Range' with DCS. He's going to continue as Chairman of the group though, thank goodness! :)
So that's my summary of the evening! :) Thanks to everyone that attended the AGM and the End of Season event. I hope you all enjoyed the evening, as much I did."

The other news is that the video mentioned above has now been completed and is on view on the homepage! That's all for this season but check in occasionally as there may be the odd update on progress towards next year.

The pens have now fallen silent at Gronant for the first time since April. There is an eerie silence around the site but all the remaining 'ternlets' have now fledged. There are still small numbers to be seen down on the beach at high tide but most have moved away. Indeed 74 were seen off Hilbre Island today; a classic area they move to post-breeding to continue growing and feeding up in preparation for their mammoth migration. It's hard to believe that at only a month old, many of the youngsters will be starting their journey to the African wintering grounds. Best of luck to them!

The tern group and wardens have been busy taking down the equipment on site this week, before high tides hit at the weekend. Most of it is now down but there is an event outstanding to take kit off site on Friday 10th. Any help gratefully received, and in return there will be a picnic. Please bring something towards it if you can. In the coming few weeks the wardens will write the season report which will reveal how many chicks made it to fledglings this year, so I won't spoil the surprise here! All members of the group will be entitled to receive the report if they wish, just ask at the group's email address - nwlittletern@gmail.com.

It has been a busy week down at Gronant and not for the reasons you might imagine. The birds have been looking after themselves a lot more, with the chicks growing up quickly and with little interest from Kestrels now the feeding station is working so well. Instead we were inundated with the media following a press release circulated about the new visitor centre and hide. A crew from BBC Wales came down to film a piece for their 6.30pm 'today' news programme. A clip of the interview is posted below.

There will also be a radio interview on the season coming out on the BBC Wales country focus programme some time in August. An article was also published today (30/07) in the Daily Telegraph about the season. Great that the colony is getting the media attention it deserves and for all the right reasons too!

Tern-wise the chicks are growing up fast and in the next week we'll see how many have made it to fledging. Of slight concern has been the regular presence of a Weasel which was cheeky enough to peek its head in to the visitor centre the other day and stared eye-to-eye with a surprised warden!

If you would like to come and help us take down the site, there is an event on 10th August at Gronant beach from 10am and your help would be very welcome.

Since the last update, everything has been going rather well down at Gronant. There have been up to 190 chicks hatch out with the last nest hatching yesterday (22/07). We are definitely in the last phase of the season with chicks starting to move away from breeding pens and certain parts of the colony falling quiet for the first time since May. Saying that, there is still a fantastic amount of activity around most of the site and it is good to see no shortage of food being brought in for the growing chicks. The photo below shows a rapidly growing chick hiding amongst the rocky terrain on the seaward facing shingle bank.

It was nice to see the NWLTG mentioned in a recent news article about the new visitor centre on the BirdGuides website. To read the article please click the following link - https://www.birdguides.com/news/denbighshire-council-opens-little-tern-visitor-centre/

There is an event on 10th Aug at Gronant from 10am to take down fencing at Gronant and a BBQ lunch. Please attend if you would like and bring something towards the BBQ. Taking down the site is always more relaxing than putting it up (no post thumping required!) and it should be a fun day so long as the weather holds.