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.
0 Comments
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. A month after devastating tides down at Gronant wiped out 2/3 of all nests, it was with bated breath to see what this month would bring and kept a close eye on the daily forecasts hoping that the settled weather would continue. This time it seems, the terns have been lucky and the tides have barely reached the protective fencing. There will be a little work to clear debris in some areas but nothing significant. Phew! Just in case the tides were bad the wardens prepared nests in the usual way, by moving them slowly up the beach or by carefully placing the nest on a plant pot or bucket (as shown below). In the last few days there has been a mass-hatching of eggs with the majority of re-laid nests successfully reaching this stage (including the two nests being beamed in to the visitor center). The photo below shows an egg with a pipping youngster inside pecking its way out. You may notice the little white speck on the end of the bill of the chick. This is known as the 'egg-tooth' and it is a temporary calcium deposit which helps the chick break through the egg. Isn't nature clever! More of a concern is the continued predation from Kestrels. Despite the best efforts of everyone on site the Kestrels are persistent and occasionally succeed in taking chicks and fledglings. Many of the successful tern families have moved away now as there is nothing keeping them at the site and remaining here is endangering themselves and their offspring. For the remaining birds, we need help from volunteers to station themselves around the site and scare off the Kestrel when it approaches. It doesn't always work, but every successful occasion for us is one more chick to make it to fledging. Any help gratefully received!
We are pleased to announce, after lots of planning and testing, that live-streaming is operational at the Visitor Center in the Gronant Dunes. Images are being beamed in from a couple of nests and the birds are currently on eggs. In about 10 days they are due to hatch and there will be great opportunities to see a tern's-eye view of the chicks being fed. Below is a snapshot of an adult sitting tight on its eggs. It takes luck (or great patience!) to see a changeover or food-pass, but is exciting when it happens. One adult on each nest is also colour-ringed so it is possible to see which adult is tending the nest at any one time. To see it for yourself please visit the site. Numbers of birds have peaked lately at 420 adults, an increase on the roughly 350 which had been spending the summer here. We think this is likely due to an influx of failed breeders from other sites around the Irish Sea. It is getting late for these to start nesting now. They would still be around in Mid-August if they started now. Saying that, there are still displaying birds down on the beach. Of pairs that did re-lay we are over 80 active nests. The calm weather looks set to last, but whilst weather isn't a threat right now, a pair of Kestrels certainly are. They are being seen increasingly frequently. Consequently, any volunteer help down at Gronant will be very helpful in the coming weeks.
Last week, our long-standing ringer, Professor David Norman, and his team visited Gronant to ring some adult birds. Efforts have been stepped up this season to ring more adults and hopefully catch a few that were ringed as chicks to find out their age whilst adding colour-rings to all caught birds so we can re-sight them in the field without the need to catch them again. The first we caught in the session transpired to be something a bit little special! See below:
In other news, we are happy to announce plenty of birds are re-laying after losing their nests in the storm on June 14th. We are up to 50 new nests in the last few days with more coming every day. This will really extend our season and give longer to enjoy and study the birds. If these nests can hatch and go on to fledge they still have the possibility of a good breeding season, but things really need to go their way this time as there's no time for a third attempt. Onwards and upwards.
We are at peak Little Tern! The season is now at it's zenith at Gronant with most of the pairs incubating eggs. At times there have been up to 370 Little Terns, although counting them is an art-form when they are whizzing around. Peregrines are causing daily panics for the birds but to our knowledge there have not been any depredations yet. It has been great to see so many people visiting and enjoying the terns this season. If you have not been yet this year, head down to the visitor center and the wardens will show you birds sat on the nest. (Directions on the 'Gronant Dunes' page). This Saturday the North Wales Little Tern Group will be down at Nantclwyd y Dre, Ruthin for the Nature Day being held there. If you are near please pop in and we can answer any questions you may have or sign up to join the group. There will be many wildlife groups present and you can join in with a 'bioblitz'; recording as many species as possible in the day. Entry £2. See poster below for more details.
It seemed to take forever but the first Little Tern eggs were spotted on the 20th May (first egg date 19th). This is 4 days later than last year. The terns had been back a month and showing a lot of interest in the breeding pens. We think although the birds were ready to lay their eggs earlier, in the nice weather, they were waiting for the high spring tides to pass, very sensible of them! It's all go now and since the first nest was spotted we are already up to 20 active nests and many more to come. If you have not been down to see the terns yet this season now is a good time with so much activity to be seen.
After a week of finishing touches and getting the pens electrified we are now ready for Little Terns to start nesting. Numbers of terns peaked at 120 on the bank holiday Monday (11/05) but became harder to see after that as the weather had been a bit cold. With the warmer weather this coming week we are hoping they will start nesting. High tides could be an issue so we'll keep a close eye on that situation and may have some debris to clear from fencing on 16th-17th. The wardens will be on site to meet any volunteers and visitors from now on. There will be tasks such as predator watches, public engagement and monitoring to help with in the coming weeks so please come down. The photo above shows the view from the new monitoring hide, access to which members of the North Wales Little Tern Group are allowed. The hide is situated adjacent to one of the breeding pens and will offer unrivaled views of the breeding Little Terns. There are already nesting Oystercatchers and Ringed Plovers on view. If you are interested in using it please ask the warden on duty. N.B. it may not be possible to use the hide on occasions due to bad weather or if it needs to be used for other purposes.
Thanks to the combined efforts of over 30 people during the last week all the fencing for the breeding pens is now up and is already hosting occasional inspections from the Little Terns. This was no mean feat as the pickup delivering the equipment couldn't get that near to the site this year due to soft mud getting in the way, so there was lots of carrying of equipment just to get it on site. With the additional support from the RSPB, Presthaven ranger, NWWT and volunteers from Northop College we got more fencing up than ever, protecting as much high quality breeding habitat as possible. The coming week will see us electrify the pens to keep foxes (and people) out during the breeding season. From a pile of 'stuff' in a trailer to fully installed pens for the breeding terns.
Little Tern numbers continue to grow with 60 seen on the tide line today (05/05). The earliest date for nesting on record was set last year, on the 15th. Could the nice weather this weekend see that record get beaten by over a week? Time will tell. |
AuthorHenry Cook Archives
March 2022
Categories
All
|