People are being urged to hire a home on a Northumberland island - to help one of the UK’s rarest seabirds.
The RSPB is leasing out nest boxes on Coquet Island off Amble for use by roseate terns.
The wildlife sanctuary island is the only roseate nesting colony in the UK, with pairs travelling over 4,000 miles from West Africa to breed there each year.
In 2000 the RSPB began providing wooden house-shaped nesting boxes in terraces for the roseate terns.
At that time there were only 24 nesting pairs.
But the boxes were such a hit with the birds that last year 71 pairs nested and this summer the figure rose to 78.
The boxes significantly improve the terns’ chances of breeding success by protecting the chicks from bad weather and predation from gulls.
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