As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Rare seabird colony on Chesil Beach growing after years of decline

13th June


Things are getting better for a colony of rare seabirds.

The colony of little terns at Chesil Beach has seen growing numbers recently.

After years of decline through the 1990s and 2000s - with no breeding pairs at all in 2009 - a recovery project has successfully helped the colony grow in size again.

Ben Harrington, Project Officer for the Little Tern colony, said: "The colony is doing great, the number of nests has been rising rapidly and is very likely to keep on going. We had our first two chicks hatch, with plenty more to hatch in the next few days.

"In recent years the population at the colony has been fairly steady, at about 38 pairs, but hopefully this year we will have even more.

"The colony has successfully fledged plenty of chicks over the last few seasons and they should hopefully be returning soon."

The little tern colony at Chesil Beach is the only one of its kind in the south west.

As a result of the efforts of the project, there are now 36 nests, 22 of which have 3 eggs.


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