Roseate Tern chicks hatch at Larne Lough

03/07/2019

A major restoration project is expected to give Roseate Tern a significant boost in Northern Ireland, with recently hatched chicks at RSPB's Larne Lough confirming that the programme is off to a successful start.

Larne Lough reserve is one of the most important sites around the island of Ireland for breeding terns and, after sea defences collapsed causing flooding and erosion, it has now been restored as part of a £391,000 project, with costs partially covered by the EU-funded Roseate Tern LIFE Recovery Project, Ahead of the 2019 breeding season, RSPB-led works shored up the island and extended the tern nesting area, making it a prime potential site for a Roseate Tern colony.

While there were between 20 and 35 breeding pairs at Larne Lough between 1985 and 1989, just one pair has been recorded in recent years. However, last week a survey revealed that two chicks hatched, with RSPB Northern Ireland Tern Conservation Officer Monika Wojcieszek saying: "This is fantastic news that we have two Roseate Tern chicks on Blue Circle and we're hopeful that we can see their numbers increase year on year.

"This restoration project was a major piece of conservation work and it was vital to safeguard this tern colony. The works were needed to preserve the integrity of the site – parts of it were completely inundated at high tide periods, limiting nesting and breeding opportunities.

"On the island we have approximately 7,000 birds, but Roseate Tern is one of the rarest of all our breeding birds in the UK and Ireland, so it's fantastic that we have been able to work with partners, including Tarmac, to complete this work on the island."

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Eastern student, East Haddam resident studying endangered birds in Buzzards Bay

By Press Staff

 Published 4:47 pm EDT, Friday, July 12, 2019

Rachael Finch ‘21, a biology major at Eastern Connecticut State University from East Haddam, has spent the past five weeks working with the endangered birds in Massachusetts’ Buzzards Bay.

WILLIMANTIC — Rachael Finch, ‘21, a biology major at Eastern Connecticut State University from East Haddam, has spent the past five weeks working with the endangered birds in Massachusetts’ Buzzards Bay.

As the recipient of an Eastern Summer Research Fellowship, she is working to help restore the population of roseate terns — an endangered, migratory seabird that nests in the Northeast, according to a press release.

Under the supervision of Biology Professor Patty Szczys, and in collaboration with Mass Wildlife, Finch’s field work occurred on Ram and Bird Islands in Buzzards Bay. Each morning, she’d take a boat ride to either of the islands and spend the day monitoring the birds, the release said.

“Being on the island every day is exhausting,” she said of the early mornings and long hours in a prepared statement. “However, the work we’re doing for the birds is crucial to help their survival.”

Among her objectives, Finch is assessing whether leg banding — the traditional method of tracking and monitoring terns — is in fact harming the already endangered birds.

“The bands may cause an increase in mortality on their wintering grounds, thus potentially contributing to their slow population growth,” said Finch, who is comparing survival rates in banded versus unbanded terns.

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Record-breaking numbers of UK's rarest seabird return to island after near extinction

118 pairs of roseate terns successfully raise chicks off coast of Northumberland after nearly being wiped out in 1970s

Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent 

Record numbers of roseate terns have nested off the coast of Northumberland, raising hopes for this once critically endangered bird.

Populations of these terns crashed as low as 16 breeding pairs in the 1970s due to demand for their beautiful plumage, which was used to make hats.

Though still considered the country’s rarest seabird, roseate tern numbers have bounced back thanks to a concerted effort by conservationists, and this year saw 118 pairs raising chicks on Coquet Island.

The small island, just a kilometre from the mainland, is host to the last sizeable breeding population of the tern – which was once widespread across the whole of the UK.

Their success there has been largely the result of a scheme to create rows of “terrace houses” for the birds to live in, which recreate the crevices that the terns like to lay their eggs in.

The RSPB constructed these special nest boxes on the island in 2000 when the population still only numbered 34 pairs, and since then numbers have consistently climbed.

“For the past three years we’ve been consistently attracting more than 100 pairs of roseate terns to the island, who have fledged more than a 100 chicks each year,” said Paul Morrison, warden at RSPB Coquet Island.

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Breeding Roseate Terns return to Wales

RSPB Cymru have announced that two Roseate Tern chicks were born at The Skerries this summer – with one chick having successfully flown the nest for the first time since 2006.

Funding provided by the EU Roseate Tern Recovery Project allowed for a two-week extension on the islands’ wardening season, along with newly designed nest boxes being placed strategically around the islands. The wardens also placed lures playing Roseate Tern calls and hand-made decoys with the aim of attracting passing Roseate Terns to the colony.

Once widespread across Wales, Roseate Terns nearly became extinct in the 19th century because their plumage was prized for fashionable hats. Sadly, Roseate Terns continue to face many challenges, including food shortages, eroding nesting habitat and predation. To address this challenge, 2015 saw the launch of an ambitious five year EU-funded Roseate Tern LIFE Recovery Project bringing together conservationists from the RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland and North Wales Wildlife Trust on the three breeding colonies (two in Ireland and one in the UK). The project is also focused on creating further Roseate Tern-friendly sites across the UK and Ireland in the hopes of re-establishing thriving colonies.

Currently in 2018, there are only 116 breeding pairs of Roseate Terns in the UK, restricted to just Coquet Island in England. With their incredibly pale plumage with slight rosy flush and long tail streamers, they are considered the most elegant of the five breeding terns to visit our shores. These endangered birds migrate each spring from western Africa to breed at only a handful of colonies in the UK and Ireland.

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Mark Blazis: Roseate terns face another threat — ravenous gray seals

By Mark Blazis
Posted Mar. 28, 2016 at 9:45 PM
Updated Mar 29, 2016 at 12:50 AM


While you probably know how vital Massachusetts is to the tiny world population of piping plovers, you might not be as familiar with roseate terns. They’re also rare and endangered birds that need the Bay State. About 80 percent of their tiny population feeds on the Outer Cape each summer, fattening up mostly on abundant sand eels before migrating to coastal South America where they spend the winter.

In a little more than a decade after the roseate tern's placement on the endangered species list in 1987, its population rebounded from a low of just 3,000 pairs up to over 4,000. Prospects were looking bright for their ascent to the 5,000 pairs needed to keep their population viable. But their numbers have once again fallen alarmingly close to 1987 numbers. Kathy Parsons, director of the state Coastal Waterbird Program, thinks she knows why. Needless to say, Cape surf fishermen won’t be surprised. Gray seals, which have expanded beyond everyone’s expectations, take enormous amounts of fish and make surf casting for striped bass almost impossible. Parsons suspects they are competing too well with the terns for the same food.

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Police fund cash helps Northumberland seabird colony

An island’s rare seabird colony will be given extra protection thanks to a fund set upby Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Vera Baird.

Situated a mile off the coast of Amble in Northumberland, Coquet Island is home to tens of thousands of breeding seabirds during spring and summer, including the UK’s only colony of roseate terns.

As a result, the RSPB reserve is designated as a wildlife sanctuary and landing is prohibited without consent.

The Police Commissioner’s Community Fund has awarded a grant of £2,000 to help protect the island from wildlife crime.

The RSPB will use the grant to upgrade the island’s outdated CCTV system so wardening staff can monitor the nesting colonies effectively for illegal activity such as egg theft and disturbance of roseate terns.

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Hire a bird house to help Coquet Island's rare seabirds

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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