Restoration project could see one of Europe's rarest breeding sea birds brought back from the brink in Northern Ireland

Marie Louise McConville

27 June, 2019 01:00

ONE of Europe's rarest breeding sea birds could be brought back from the brink in Northern Ireland following a major island restoration project.

The critically endangered Roseate terns have been in near-terminal decline since the late 1980s.

Blue Circle Island, part of the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird's (RSPB) Larne Lough reserve, is one of the most important sites in Ireland for breeding terns.

However, sea defences on the island collapsed and up to a third of it had eroded through flooding.

Now, a £391,000 of funding, with costs partially covered by the EU-funded Roseate Tern LIFE Recovery Project ,and additional match funding from Tarmac and the RSPB, the charity has been able to lead works to extend the nesting area, making it a prime potential site for a roseate tern colony, ahead of the 2019 breeding season.

While there were between 20 and 35 breeding pairs in Larne Lough between 1985 and 1989, just one pair has been recorded in recent years.

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Little Tern eggs stolen from Norfolk beach

23/06/2019

The RSPB is assisting Norfolk Constabulary in an appeal for information into the theft of seven clutches of Little Tern eggs from a colony near Winterton, Norfolk.

EU Life+ Little Tern Recovery Project volunteers and staff work shifts to monitor the terns throughout daylight hours, when the birds are most vulnerable to disturbance. However, in the early hours of the morning of Thursday 20 June, RSPB Little Tern wardens discovered that up to 20 eggs had been illegally stolen from seven nests. Human footprints were identified leading up to each nest.

Little Tern is one of the UK's rarest breeding seabirds, having suffered serious declines over the past 25 years. In the 1980s there were 2,500 breeding pairs but this fell to fewer than 2,000 pairs in 2000, and it is now estimated that there are currently a maximum of 1,500 pairs.

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