Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project

22nd July - 7th August:

Sorry for the (extremely) late final update on the 2010 Kilcoole Little Tern project folks. Time just ran away on us towards the end of the summer and apparently kept running until now!!! Anyways, better late than never!

When I last posted, there were two remaining active nests with two eggs each, K48 & K49. Nest K49 abandoned its two eggs as the late date of laying meant the birds didn’t have enough time to hatch & raise their chicks successfully before migrating, so unfortunately deserting their clutch was the only option. K48 however (which was being brooded by a blue colour-ringed female, thought to have been born in Wexford Harbour in either 1995 or 1997) successfully hatched both eggs! And just in time it seems! The project finished on 7th August, by which time both chicks from K48 were about two & a half weeks old and well able to run briskly along the foreshore when approached. We felt that they would be safe enough to leave behind under the watchful eye of their parents as they were so close to fledging and the chances of somebody or something coming across them was quite slim. I am pleased to say that I received a text from local birder, Brian Haslam, during the 3rd week of August to say that both birds were fully fledged & flying strongly about the former colony with one of the parents!!! HAPPY DAYS!!!

K48 chicks at 1-2 days old

K48 chick at 8 days old

The numbers of adults & fledglings present at the colony dropped off dramatically come the last week of July with birds already beginning their southward migration at this stage. To give you some idea of how quickly the birds departed, total flock sizes (adults+ fledglings) went from a peak of 155 on 16th July to 100 on 20th July to 70 on 25th July to 30 on 26th July and to 5 on 31st July. It was amazing how quickly the colony site became dead silent. In late June when a mix of pairs on eggs or with chicks could be found, the site was a hive of activity with pair courting, feeding, territorial disputes, constant chattering & squeaking, dive bombing and some well aimed pooing all taking place! By the first week of August you'd hardly ever have known that 66 pairs of Ireland's rarest breeding tern battled against Peregrines, Kestrels, Hooded Crows, Foxes, Hedgehogs, gale force storms & a couple of mental wardens to defend and raise their families on this small section of beach. In fact, a few beach walkers who only happened upon the site at this stage and who were unfamiliar with the project seemed rather unimpressed! I don't think they really got what all the fuss was about! Hopefully they'll be back next May or June and see first hand what an amazing place this really is when the colony is in full swing.

K11 incubating back in June - she successfully fledged 3 young!

Well, I bet you guys are all dying to know the final tallies for the year and how everything worked out in the end, so here's a small summary of how things played out:

- Wardens were on site from 10th May until 7th August.

- A total of 66 pairs of Little Terns made 70 nesting attempts.

- The first eggs were found on 21st May but were thought to have been laid on 19th May.

- A total of 174 eggs were laid, with a mean clutch size of 2.48 eggs per nest (with known clutch sizes).

- 35 eggs failed to hatch for the following reasons: infertility (13), flooding by storms & high tides ( 8 ), deserted (5), taken by Hooded Crows (4), eaten by a Hedgehog (2), ‘dumped’ on the beach & not incubated (2) & unknown (1).

- A total of 139 chicks were known to have hatched out of 60 nests from the 11th June.

- The modal incubation period was 19.83 days.

- A total of 126 chicks were ringed.

- A pair of Kestrels were responsible for the known loss of 12 Little Tern chicks between 29th June &10th July.

- In addition, 6 small chicks were trampled by humans along the foreshore, 2 small chicks were lost to a hightide & storm, 1 near‐fledgling was taken by a Fox & 1 fledgling was taken by a Peregrine. A further 2 chicks were lost to an unknown cause, but are thought to have been taken by the Kestrels.

- Thus, 115 chicks were presumed to have fledged, which equates to productivity this year of 1.74 fledglings per breeding pair.

- Overall this season was the 5th best since the project began in 1985 with the number of pairs (66), number of presumed fledged (115) & productivity (1.74) well above the previous 24 year average (44.68 pairs, 47.88 presumed fledged & a productivity of 0.98 ).

The other two species nesting within the colony, Oystercatcher & Ringed Plover, had a rather difficult season it seems. Two pairs of Oystercatchers nested on the beach, one pair each in the K-colony & N-colony. They laid 2 & 3 eggs respectively but only raised a single fledgling each. One chick from the K-colony was taken by a Fox whilst two of the 3 chicks from the N-colony pair were lost to an unknown cause. The Ringed Plovers didn’t fare too well at all. A total of 6 pairs made 10 nesting attempts although only 3 young were thought to have fledged successfully. The reasons for this remain unknown, but it is thought that disease may have been a factor. One small chick was seen to have been taken by the male Kestrel on 20th July. 

Ringing, measuring & weighing a Ringed Plover chick

So overall we are delighted with how this year’s project went. In addition to the efforts of the wardens & the co-operation of the general public, the weather played an important part in the success of the Little Terns breeding season in 2010. The largely dry, fine & sunny days gave the birds every opportunity to feed their young as much as possible, resulting in many young fledging much quicker than usual. Let’s hope we will see a similar or better result next season.

Other Wildlife Sightings:

Birds - Total number of species recorded since 10th May - 120

Latest Additions - Grey Wagtail, Scaup, Green Sandpiper, Roseate Tern, Merlin, Goldcrest & Water Rail.

A moulting drake Scaup that turned up in Webb's field on 23rd July (remaining until 28th July) was an exceptional local record. Also present in Webb's field during this time was a female-type Shoveler, 2 Teal, 15 Little Grebes & 9 Little Egrets. A Goldcrest, a singing male Yellowhammer, 4 Stock Doves, a Grey Wagtail, good numbers of juvenile Willow Warblers, Greenfinches & Goldfinches and up to 200 House Sparrows were present at Webb's farmyard.

There was plenty of Sterna tern activity, with flocks of up to 45 'Commic' terns migrating along the coast on several days. These flocks included several Roseate Terns with counts of 2 on 25th July, 10-12 on 1st Aug & 2 on 2nd Aug. These birds were probably from the colony at Lady's Island Lake, Co. Wexford (where 118 pairs bred in 2010), making their way north to the post-breeding congregation of c.3-4,000 Sterna terns in Dublin Bay where they would join other Roseates from the Rockabill colony (where an amazing 1,093 pairs bred in 2010!!!). Nice views were had on 25th July when a group of c.70 Little Terns, an adult & a juvenile Roseate Tern, an Arctic Tern & c.15 Common Terns were seen roosting at the mouth of The Breaches. 20+ Sandwich Terns were also day roosting in Webb's field on the same date, so it was great to see all four breeding species of Irish tern in the same location! An adult Common Tern was seen trying to rob a sandeel from an adult Little Tern on 25th July also but gave up after 2-3 minutes of chasing.

A juvenile Mediterranean Gull was in The Breaches on 23rd July, along with a juvenile Rock Pipit which was seen on 26th July & 3rd Aug. A peak of 3 Kingfishers was seen in The Breaches also on 30th July. Numbers of Wheatears started to build up with 6 seen on the rocks along the N-colony on 31st July & a fresh juvenile at the K-colony on 3rd August. A Grasshopper Warbler was seen in the K-colony dunes on 28th July whilst the juvenile Whitethroat seen previously remained in the Sea Buckthorn bushes. Raptors in the area included the regular 2nd calendar-year female Peregrine, a female Sparrowhawk, the pair of Kestrels & their 2 fledged young & a juvenile male Merlin which flew south through The Breaches on 1st August.

Migrant Waders: 2 Green Sandpipers calling & flying about Webb's field on the evening of 23rd July was the undoubted highlight. Numbers of Dunlin & Ringed Plover started building up again with peaks of 54 on 31st July & 45 on 2nd August respectively, including many juveniles. Other waders seen during this period included up to 4 Sanderling, 6 Greenshank (30th July), 3 Common Sandpiper, 4 Whimbrel, 1 Turnstone, 25+ Black-tailed Godwits (including the 2 colour-ringed birds) and a peak of 20 Lapwings on Stringer's land on 1st Aug.

An injured Wheatear

Cole's pet Mute Swans

Mammals - Brown Rat, Rabbit, Hedgehog, Pygmy Shrew, Leisler's Bat, Harbour Porpoise, Bottlenose Dolphin, Red Fox, Otter & Grey Seal all seen since the 10th May.

Butterflies - Large White, Small White, Green‐veined White, Orange‐tip, Small Copper, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Painted Lady, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Speckled Wood & Wall Brown all seen since the 10th May.

Moths - A total of 91 species of macro-moth & 16 species of micro-moth were recorded throughout the season, mostly trapped using a 15W Actinic Trap kindly provided by Angus Tyner.

Dragonflies & Damselflies - Blue-tailed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Hairy Hawker, Migrant Hawker, Emperor, Four-spotted Chaser, Black-tailed Skimmer & Common Darter all seen since 10th May.

Angled Shades

Tachina grossa

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Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank the following for their ongoing support: our partners from National Parks and Wildlife Service especially Anthony McElheron (Project Co-ordinator), Enda Mullen & Wesley Atkinson for their advice & financial backing. We are grateful to the staff at BirdWatch Ireland for their constant encouragement, with particular thanks going to Stephen Newton (Project Co-ordinator), Jerry Wray for making lamp shelters and mounts for interpretation signs & to Cóilín MacLochlainn for designing the new information signs & leaflets.

We would also like to thank Oscar Merne & Éamon de Búitléir for their continued support & interest in the project. Michael Finn & Terry O’Rourke provided us with stunning images of Little Terns which were used on this site, for which we are greatly appreciative of. We would like to thank Mr. Vincent Corcoran of Iarnród Éireann, who kindly took the wardens through the Health & Safety briefing and also the train drivers for the mutual understanding & respect for our early and long hours not unlike their own.

We are very grateful to John & Angie Webb for granting access to their farmyard & allowing us to use the water and mains power supply located there, as well as for their warm hospitality. John Nugent facilitated the unblocking of The Breaches as required, and we are grateful for his cooperation. Angus Tyner kindly provided us with a Moth trap which allowed for some detailed recording to be undertaken. Many thanks also go to all the volunteers who helped out this year: William Earle, Scilla Farrell, Riona Howard, Finnian Kelly, Seán Kelly, Susan O’Donohue, Andrew Power & Christopher Webb. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Enid Macey, whose spirit and ashes were amongst the colony from start to finish. We would like to think in a small way this helped in the success of this year’s project. Finally, we would like to thank the members of the public who visited the site this year. Their assistance in the protection of the Little Terns, by adhering to the restrictions put in place for the duration of the project, as well as their constant enthusiasm & support was greatly appreciated.

So long & thanks for all the sandeels!!!

...eTERNally yours

The Lads (Niall, Jason, Cole & Stephen)

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It seems that three months of living in a caravan by the beach was starting to take its toll...

7th July - 21st July:

The end of the project is very much in sight at the moment with nearly all the young terns having fledged. Furthermore there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of both adult & juvenile Little Terns at the colony, especially over the past week where maximum counts barely reach 100 birds in total! So it seems that the first batch of nests to hatch at the start of the season have already left! They will probably make their way towards Wexford Harbour before flying to a staging post in southern Portugal, and then on to West Africa!!!

The fact that the young terns are now quite strong and fully capable of flight has not ment that they are completely out of harm's way. The year-old female Peregrine that has been hanging around the colony all summer got her chance on the 11th, chasing the flock about 500m out to sea. She then targeted a single fledgling that broke away from the safety of the flock, kept it pinned down close against the water's surface whilst chasing it and by the time the young tern tried to make a break for freedom it was obviously already way too tired to out run the falcon which picked it off with relative ease! It is an awful shame to see one of these fully grown young taken before they even had a chance to migrate but such is life I guess. The Peregrine has to eat too, and to be honest, watching this whole spectacle was rather impressive. The Peregrine is too good at what it does!

The male Kestrel had been increasing the frequency & intensity of his attacks over the past while, making up to 8 in a day, resulting in the loss of a further 3 young Little Terns (including a fledgling that decided to try & hide as opposed to fly). On one occasion I even managed to chase the Kestrel down and make him drop the young tern but unfortunately I was too late Our scare tactic efforts continue, which, coupled with the fact that there isn't many flightless morsels left to be taken has meant that in the past few days the 'Kestrel problem' seems to be subsiding.

More losses were incurred however on the night of the 16th when a thunderstorm & easterly winds coupled with a very high tide swept right across the K-colony, washing away 3 nests with a total of 5 eggs that were located near the seaward fence, as well as 2 small chicks which had just hatched a few days beforehand. Furthermore the tide also buried the seaward fence under a foot of shingle in places, which was rather difficult to dig back out to say the least but we have managed to do so with causing any major disturbance to the terns. Thankfully the majority fo the young terns at the time were able to fly or run away from the waves but again it is a shame to lose some nest & chicks. The severity of the tide was such that even if nest moves were made on those near the seaward fence they still would have been washed out. Only those two nests which were located right up near the vegetation line survived.

Storm damage - there used to be 300m of fence there!!!

As it stands now we still have two active nests with a chick & an egg [K48] & two eggs [K49] respectively. There are 3 other flightless chicks still present on the beach which should hopefully be on the wing or at least nearly there by the time we finish up at the end of the month. We did have a few more late nesting attempts but unfortunately these were the ones that were swept by the tide. Therefore a total of 66 pairs nested this season, fledging 110 juvenile terns up to this point in time.

The two blue colour-ringed Little Terns seen in the colony mentioned in the previous post now seem to have originated from the colony in Wexford Harbour and not Hartlepool as previously thought. Chris Wilson fitted two chicks with such blue rings back in 1995 and another one again in 1997. Therefore at least one of the birds at Kilcoole this season is at least 15 years old and still breeding!!!

Both pairs of Oystercatchers have a single chick and the OC1 youngster has been recently making short flights across the colony when approached. Both of the Ringed Plover pairs which were on eggs have hatched a total of 7 chicks since the last post although one has been taken by the male Kestrel.

A Ringed Plover chick which had just hatched & the Oystercatcher chick from OC2

Other Wildlife Sightings:

Birds - Total number of species recorded so far - 112

Latest additions - Chiffchaff, Whitethroat & Grasshopper Warbler.

The number of Little Egrets has raised dramatically over recent weeks with up to 17 birds present, including several juveniles from this year. Up to two Kingfishers are present most days in either Webb's field or in The Breaches and large numbers of juvenile Sand Martins have been moving south (a high count of c.1,000 on 7th).

There are four broods of Shelduck in Webb's field with a total of 16 young, 3 broods of Little Grebes with a total of 5 young and a new brood of Mute Swans in Webb's field with 2 small cygnets. The lone male Mute Swan is still tending to his well grown cygnet in The Breaches. Large numbers of moulting Mallard are still hanging about which have now been joined by 4 Shoveler & 6 Teal whilst the roosting Cormorant flock in Webb's has built up to 35 birds. A 2nd cal-year Little Gull has been a fairly regular visitor to The Breaches & Webb's most evenings or when the weather is bad, with a superb adult summer bird joining it on the 10th and a second 2nd cal-year bird present on 18th also. There has been plenty of Sandwich Terns moving north with fledged young, some of which stop off to rest in Webb's. A small number of Arctic & Common terns have been with them and more notably so have several Mediterranean Gulls (juvenile and a 2nd cal-year on 13th, juvenile on 15th, juvenile on 17th & a juvenile and an adult on 21st). The juvenile Rock Pipit has been seen now and again feeding in The Breaches along the embankment or at the mouth of the outflow itself. A yellow variant juvenile Grasshopper Warbler was seen in the Buckthorn bushes on 17th. Offshore, 30 Common Scoter flew south on 10th, 3 summer plumaged Red-throated Divers flew south on 11th, a dark phase Arctic Skua flew south on 13th with another again on 21st. A juvenile Cuckoo at The Breaches/Buckthorns was a nice surprise on 12th although it didn't hang around long as it got an awful amount of abuse from the terns which is not surprising as they look like a cross between a Kestrel & a Sparrowhawk!!!

Migrant Waders: The Black-tailed Godwit flock is still ever present, feeding in The Breaches, numbering up to 110. There has been an increase in the number of Dunlin over the past week with c.25 present along with 5 Common Sandpipers, c.50 Curlew, small numbers of Whimbrel & Sanderling, singles of Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit & Greenshank and up to 9 Redshank.

'Record Shot' of the 2nd cal-year & adult summer Little Gulls

Mammals - Fox, Brown Rat, Pygmy Shrew, Hedgehog, Harbour Porpoise, Otter, Grey Seal & Bottlenose Dolphin

Butterflies - Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small White, Small Tortoiseshell, Common Blue & Holly Blue

Dragonflies & Damselflies - Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly & Common Darter

Harry - Looking for some tasty tern eggs no doubt!!!

See ya,

Niall

27th June - 6th July:

With the weather having been so good for most of the summer the parent Little Terns have had every opportunity to feed their chicks throughout the day, with no long spells of inactivity as a result of heavy rain/storms etc. As a result, the Little Tern chicks have been developing rapidly and we had our first young take flight on the 3rd July!!!! The oldest chick at this stage would have been 23 days old which is certainly on the earlier end of the scale (the 'Little Tern manual' states that most tern chicks are not usually capable to fly properly until about 28 days old). We have since then even seen the young terns making their first attempts at fishing and some have been ranging as far north as Kilcoole train station! A count of fledglings gathered along the shoreline late yesterday evening revealed at least 45 of them huddling against the bank from the strong winds.

Little Tern fledglings

As mentioned in the last update, we expected a number of late nesting attempts and this has proven true with 7 new nests found in the past week. Most of these are probably re-lays from nests previously found abandoned on the shoreline or 'lost' due to crows or infertility but a few are also probably genuine late nesting attempts, perhaps from birds which have arrived from other colonies. This last theory seems to hold true as one of the new nests (K48) is being incubated by a bird with a blue darvic ring! She may well have come from the colony at Seaton Carew near Hartlepool. Further updates on this will be made as soon as we find out. 

And now for the bad news...with all the activity on the beach in recent days and the fact that there are plenty of tasty little morsels running around the beach it wasn't surprising that some attention was going to be drawn to the site. On Tuesday 29th June, Mrs. Kestrel made her first attack on the colony and took 3 chicks from right in front of our eyes! Since then attacks have been frequent and Mr. Kestrel has also decided to join in! A total of 9 chicks are known to have been lost to the Kestrel pair although their frequency & success rates have been minimised due to a combination of the terns harassing & driving off the Kestrels as well as the wardens making loud noises from pinging stones off fences & sign posts!!! In addition to the Kestrels, the regular 2nd cal-year female Peregrine & a female Sparrowhawk have been hanging about which doesn't help the terns' nervous disposition in the slightest! If all this death from above wasn't enough, a Fox made a sweep of the foreshore on the night of the 4th July taking both a tern chick & a well grown Oystercatcher chick from the OC1 pair. Furthermore, the two eggs in K50 were munched on the night 5th July by what was presumed to have been a Hedgehog (or less likely a Rat).

K50 with remains of eggshells & stones stained from spilt fluid

Despite all this, spirits are high and we are doing our best to minimise losses as much as possible. Quite a few chicks are using the chick shelters we put out at the start of the season so let's hope that will keep them out of sight. If the number of chicks picked off remains small in the coming days (as the Kestrel WILL be back!) we still hope to be set for a good year, although saying that, a series of whopper high tides are due to start from Sunday right through until the following Friday so let's hope there won't be any easterly gales otherwise we're SCREWED!!!

As it stands we now have a total of 63 pairs with approximately 116 chicks/fledglings and 11 eggs left to hatch!!!

The Oystercatcher pair in the N-colony, OC2, successfully hatched their 3 eggs on the1st July although only 2 chicks still appear to be present. We still have 6 pairs of Ringed Plover although they have suffered heavy losses from Foxes/Crows with only 4 young chicks apparently remaining. Two re-lays with a total of 8 eggs have been found and the first nest which was found back at the start of the project (RP1) has successfully fledged their 3 young.

RP1 fledgling

Wildlife Sightings:

Birds - Total number of species recorded so far - 109

Latest Additions - Kingfisher, Raven & Rock Pipit.

3 Puffins flew south on 28th June along with c.1,500 Manx Shearwaters between 17:00 & 20:00. A 2nd cal-year Little Gull was present in The Breaches on 2nd July with a second bird also present there on both the 3rd & 4th. An adult Mediterranean Gull was seen in The Breaches on 2nd July and a fresh juvenile flew north at sea on 6th. A few Common Terns have been hanging about and an Arctic Tern was seen on the 6th. A juvenile Rock Pipit hanging around the mouth of The Breaches on 5th July was a notable site record. They used to breed at the bridge but I haven't seen one here since I was a wee chap! On the marsh, up to 7 Little Egrets are present, including some juvenile birds. Two adults & a juvenile Coot are in Stringers' channels along with the male Wigeon, 5 Teal & c.125 moulting Mallard. Two broods of Mute Swans are knocking about consisting of a pair with 4 cygnets in Stringers' channels and a lone male tending to one cygnet in The Breaches (his partner & the rest of the young were killed by a pair of young dog Foxes). The Swallows nesting under The Breaches bridge have fledged their young and the Skylarks and Reed Buntings around the colony are busy feeding their second brood.

Migrant Waders: The Black-tailed Godwit flock reached its' peak on 29th June with 155 birds in The Breaches, including the two colour-ringed individuals, a good count for the site. The return passage of Curlew continues along with the arrival of 3 Common Sandpipers, 3 Redshank, some Dunlin and singles of Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Golden Plover & Greenshank.

Mammals - Pygmy Shrew, Grey Seal, Fox, Brown Rat, Rabbit, Hedgehog, Harbour Porpoise, Bottlenose Dolphins (4 on 3rd July) & Otter (a mother & 2 young in The Breaches on 4th July).

Butterflies - Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown, Common Blue, Red Admiral (1 on 3rd July) & Ringlet.

Moths - A Humming-bird Hawk-moth was seen in the colony dunes on 3rd July and there are still loads of Six-spot Burnets about. Moth trapping at night continues with some pics of those caught found on Stephen McAvoys' site here - http://observado.org/gebied/photos/84243

Dragonflies & Damselflies - Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Four-spotted Chaser (one on 29th June) and a male Hairy Hawker & a fantastic male Emperor on 4th July.

Flora - Pyramidal Orchid.

A male Hairy Hawker & a Small Elephant Hawk-moth

See ya,

Niall

11th - 26th June:

Hi guys,

The past 2 weeks have been fairly busy so I apologise for the lack of updates but hopefully I'll be able to bring you up to speed. This is a bit of an essay so bear with me!!!

As of this afternoon we now have a total of 57 active nests/pairs, at least 115 chicks and 11 eggs left to hatch!!!

The breakdown of nests, eggs and chicks accounted for so far is as follows:

Nesting Attempts - A total of 61 nesting attempts were made however 2 nests out on the tideline (K45 & K47) were abandoned, one nest was taken by crows (N4) and another nest (K4) failed to hatch any eggs due to infertility.

Total Eggs laid - 158

- 36 nests with 3 eggs.

- 23 nests with 2 eggs.

- 2 nests with one egg.

- 2 'random' eggs found laid singly on the beach and not attributed to any nest!

Eggs lost - 26

- 2 were known to be lost to crows.

- 2 were presumably lost to crows.

- 13 were lost due to being infertile or the chicks failing to hatch successfully.

- 3 were abandoned.

- 2 were randomly laid on the beach and thus not part of a nest and weren't incubated.

- 4 are 'unaccounted' for but presumably hatched (it's surprising how fast they can hatch and leave the nest in between daily nest checks!!!).

Chicks known to have hatched - 121 (but possibly up to 125)

Chicks known to have died - 6 (due to trampling). We would yet again like to remind people that the foreshore is out of bounds!!!

Chicks ringed - 115

Eggs yet to hatch - 11

Despite the losses we are still extremely happy with how the season is progressing so far. The number of eggs lost to predators has been minimal compared to previous years and the majority of eggs lost in general were due to reasons beyond our control such as infertility and abandonment. However the loss of 6 chicks due to trampling was a major blow, not in terms of numbers, but in terms of the wardens morale :(. Saying that, the number of full 3 egg clutches laid this year has been quite high and the lack of any onshore storms, attacks from Foxes, Kestrels etc. has meant that those chicks that have hatched have had the best start in life possible so far.

Many of the chicks are now over 2 weeks old and we are expecting our first attempts at flying within the next week or so. Except for a few nests which were laid later than the rest, we should have the majority of our chicks flying come mid July which is great as it will give them as long a time as possible to strengthen up for their first journey to Africa.

Won't be long until this chap is off to Africa!!

The only other news of note regards a pair which were seen mating today so perhaps we could expect a late nesting attempt and the first usage of the shelters put out for the chicks (bits of pipe, lobster pots etc. which should protect them from sun, rain & Kestrels!).

So overall, all is well at the colony, we have been getting lots of visitors and the website & blog seems to be doing well in promoting the project. We have also been giving out tonnes of copies of the new information poster!

Ringed Plover:

A total of 6 pairs have made 8 nesting attempts, laying 27 eggs with 18 of these hatching. 12 chicks currently survive with the other 6 presumably taken by Foxes or Crows.

Oystercatchers:

Two pairs breeding, one each in the K & N-colony with 2 & 3 eggs respectively. The K-colony pair hatched 2 young on the 21st which are still present and getting bigger! The N-colony pair (OC2) are due to hatch their 3 eggs in the coming days.

The local female Kestrel has been hanging around in the back fields or along the dunes most days, however on the 24th she was seen soaring over the K-colony and had a good look around so I'd say she's sussed out that there are some tasty chicks on the beach!!! Thankfully the adult terns were quick to mobilise and drove her away fairly quickly. Let's hope she won't make a habit of picking off any chicks. The year-old Peregrine is still hanging around and has made several passes through the colony but has failed to take any terns.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Christopher Webb

for bringing down his water balloon catapult!!!

Wildlife Sightings:

Birds - Total number of species recorded so far - 106

Latest Additions - Red-breasted Merganser, Greylag Goose, Bullfinch, Coal Tit, Reed Warbler & Coot.

A female type Red-breasted Merganser flew North offshore on 11th. Sightings of presumed feral Greylag Geese are as follows; 13 flew N-NE on 11th with one later hanging around in Webb's for a few days, a further 16 then flew North on 13th and 4 flew south again on 18th. A female Shoveler, a single male & a pair of Wigeon are still about along with 4 Teal. There are currently four broods of 6,6,5 & 3 Shelduck in the area and one fledged Lapwing can be seen in Webb's field. A Reed Warbler was heard singing in Stringer's channels on 16th and another (or the same?) was heard singing in Webb's field on 18th. A 2nd-cal year Mediterranean Gull flew south on 18th, 2 adult Arctic Terns flew south on 22nd with a further 2nd cal-year Arctic Tern also flying south on 25th. The first juvenile Black-headed Gulls were seen from the 22nd with the first juvenile Little Egrets (from a nearby colony) seen in The Breaches on 24th. A male Tufted Duck was seen in Webb's on 25th & a Coot was seen in Stringer's channels on 25th.

Migrant Waders: The southward Curlew passage has started up again this week with highest totals of 13 on 22nd, 70+ on 25th and 40+ on 26th. Black-tailed Godwits continue to move through with the largest counts being 61 in The Breaches on 25th & 130 there again on the 26th. Two colour-ringed individuals were present with the flock so it will be interesting to see where they come from. Other sightings include a Turnstone on 12th, 3 Redshank on the 18th & 26th, 6 Sanderling flying North on 24th and a Common Sandpiper on 26th. Dunlin numbers have dropped off significantly to single figures.

A colour ringed Black-tailed Godwit

Mammals - Otter, Harbour Porpoise, Grey Seal, Rabbit, Fox & Pygmy Shrew.

Three Otters were seen together in The Breaches recently (a female & two young?) which appear to be separate from our resident individual in Webb's.

Butterflies - Painted Lady (1 on 11th, 2-3 on 15th, 2 on 16th & 1 on 18th), Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Small Tortoiseshell & Meadow Brown.

Moths - Six-spot Burnet, Fox Moth, Ghost Moth, Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (1 on 12th), White Plume etc.

A moth trap was set out on the nights of 23rd/24th & 24th/25th. A full list of species caught will be updated in due course. The so-called 'Oak Eggars' which we had been reporting up until now have in fact turned out to be Fox Moths!

Flowers - Pyramidal Orchid.

        Buff-tip                                 Pyramidal Orchid

All the best,

Niall

Hey guys,

Don't have much time on the 'oul computer today so I'll just post a quick update for now. As of this afternoon we have a total of 56 active nests with 97 chicks & 32 eggs left!!!

The past week has been pretty busy, and keeping track of the now very mobile chicks is proving to be quite difficult. We have also had to extend the perimeter fencing as several chicks are ranging right across the whole site! We have ringed 92 Little Tern chicks & 2 Ringed Plover chicks and the Oystercatchers in the K-colony have hatched 2 chicks also.

A more detailed mid-season update will be posted later this week.

With any luck I'll also be able to put up some video footage of Little Terns & chicks taken with a hidden camera by a nest scrape from last week!!!

Here's a few pics to keep you going until then.

See ya,

Niall

An egg, a day old chick and a two day old chick all from the same nest!

Weighing a chick as part of a study on growth rates

A week old Little Tern

Listening to eggs, a highly scientific method!!!

A well grown Ringed Plover chick from nest RP1 in the K-colony

A day old Oystercatcher chick from nest OC1 in the K-colony

On Saturday the 26th of June, BirdWatch Ireland will be holding their AGM in the Glen of the Downs Hotel, Co. Wicklow. As part of the day's activities there will be a guided walk along the marshes at Kilcoole, finishing up at the Little Tern colony. All are welcome to this event whether you attend the AGM or not.

If you would like to go on the walk then we will be meeting at Kilcoole Railway Station car park at 2pm. The walk will take a max. of 2 hours.

All the best,

Niall

Just a quick update to let you know that K2 successfully hatched a chick this morning!!!

There are also plenty of other nests with eggs just beginning to hatch (fine cracks in the shell & chicks piping inside) so we're expecting a flurry of chicks over the weekend/early next week.

Furthermore, the nest (N3) which was covered over by seaweed after yesterday's high tide is also beginning to hatch so the eggs didn't die as I had feared!!! YAY!!!

K2 chick & egg

4th - 10th June:

As of Thursday evening we have a total of 55 pairs with 149 eggs!

The terns are still seemingly quite relaxed and are 'busy' incubating away. Dread counts havn't reached past 55 birds yet there must be in the region of 120 Little Terns on site given the number of breeding pairs present along with the few prospecting pairs that have still yet to lay (and hopefully they will).

Unfortunately we lost one nest in the N-colony (N4) to crows on the morning of the 7th, but the next day we found a new nest in the K-colony (K43), somewhat making up for our loss. Furthermore, the N4 pair which were predated are still present at the N-colony, were seen mating and look as if they will make an attempt at a second clutch sometime soon.

Strong North Easterly winds on the night of the 9th/10th brought the tideline right up to and beyond the fencing in spots. There are four nests near this tideline and one (N3) was even covered over by some seaweed, which was a cause for concern as the eggs felt cold and presumably hadn't been incubated in quite some time. The nest was cleared of seaweed and the mother tern returned rather quickly and incubated the eggs for the remainder of the day. This nest (N3) & K23 were moved successfully about a metre up the beach and away from the tideline which should give them a better chance the next time a high tide & winds come.

A bit of beach combing produced some plastic piping & lobster pots which were converted into some more chick shelters which have been placed out in the colony in preparation for our first chicks which are due to hatch this weekend. K2's chicks were heard piping (calling) from inside the eggs on the 9th & 10th, which means they are just about ready to hatch!!!

The Oystercatchers in the K-colony (OC1) are still incubating 2 eggs whilst a second Oystercatcher nest (OC2) with 3 eggs was found at the N-colony. We now also have a total of 4 pairs of Ringed Plovers with one pair on 3 eggs and the remaining three pairs with 2, 3 & 3 chicks respectively. The Oystercatcher nest in Webb's field (OCW) was predated by a Fox on the night of the 6th.

A big thank you to Michael Finn who was down during the week taking some fantastic pictures of the terns, some of which he was kind enough to let us use for the website!

http://www.michaelfinnphotography.com/

On a sillier note, and in the spirit of loving bad jokes & puns we have decided that this is to be the colony song for the season...no apologies whatsoever!!!

     

Wildlife Sightings:

Birds - Total number of species recorded so far - 100

Latest Additions - Sparrowhawk, Blackcap, Water Rail, Stock Dove, Tawny Pipit & Glaucous Gull.

The big news this week involved the finding of a 2nd calendar year Tawny Pipit near Six Mile Point by local patch birder Brian Haslam. This rare Mediterranean vagrant occurs just once or twice a year in Ireland at most and normally only in counties such as Cork or Wexford. As far as I'm aware this is the first Wicklow record!!! A nice find indeed. Whilst watching the pipit a 2nd calendar year Glaucous Gull flew north over Newcastle Airfield! Probably the same bird which has been hanging out around Bray Harbour recently.

The Tawny Pipit

A couple of fledged juvenile Skylarks are present about the colony, 2 Arctic Terns flew north on 5th and a seawatch between 07:00-09:00 on the morning on the 9th produced c.3,000 Manx Shearwaters & 2 Puffins heading north. A pair of Wigeon was also in Webb's & The Breaches on 9th & 10th.

Migrant waders included a Golden Plover in Webb's on 5th, 15 Black-tailed Godwits heading south on 6th, a Bar-tailed Godwit &13 Sanderling on 7th, a Whimbrel & a Greenshank heading north on 8th & 5 Curlew heading south on 10th.

Mammals - Grey Seal (x2), Otter, Rabbit & Bottlenose Dolphin.

Bottlenose Dolphins sightings:

4th June, a group of 30-40 heading south at 04:30.

5th June, a group of 8-10 heading north from 18:45-19:30.

6th June, a group of 8-10 heading north from 14:50-15:05.

7th June, a group of 8-10 heading south at 04:30.

8th June, a group of 8-10 heading north from 17:48-17:54.

Reptiles - Viviparous Lizard.

Dragonflies - A male Black-tailed Skimmer in the colony dunes on 8th (a good Wicklow record).

Butterflies - Painted Lady (singles on 4th, 8th & 10th. Two on 9th), Common Blue, Speckled Wood & Small White.

Moths - Silver Y (on 5th), Oak Eggar & the first Six-spot Burnet on the wing on 9th.

Hows it goin,

We are more than willing to accommodate anyone who wishes to come down and photograph the terns but there have been a couple of occasions this week where I have had to ask photographers to move from the foreshore and onto the path in order to photograph the terns.

I understand that the light in the morning isn't great from taking pictures from the path but any human presence along the foreshore of the colony is guaranteed to spook the terns off their nests.

Therefore, I implore anybody who wishes to come down and take shots of the birds to do so in the late afternoon/evening when the light is on the beach and to do so from the designated public pathway. We would be more than happy to direct you to the best spot to get shots of close birds on the ground or overhead so don't hesitate in asking.

Plus we would love some shots for the website so feel free to send them on to kilcoolelittleterns@birdwatchireland.ie (you will be fully credited of course).

Note: A special licence is needed from the NPWS to take pictures of birds on the nest itself, otherwise such actions are illegal.

All the best,

Niall

31st May - 3rd June:

The terns have really settled into breeding mode now, with dreading occurring less frequently, male-female incubation changeovers happening more often, a noticeable decrease in the number of courting/prospecting pairs and a general silence over the colony during the still, warm afternoons.

As of Thursday afternoon we have a total of 54 nests with 143 eggs!!! Nearly all the nests are complete with 2 or 3 eggs or are near completion with 2 eggs. There is one new nest with one egg so far and another nest with one egg which seems unlikely to lay any more. Overall that's an average clutch size of 2.64 eggs per nest which is pretty good seeing as 3 is the maximum.

The highest dread count from the week was of c.90 terns on 1st June. It's odd that I have yet to see more than this in a single flock given that there is at least 108 breeding adults plus a small number of loafing birds who have yet to lay.

The Oystercatchers in the main K-colony are still incubating their 2 eggs whilst the Ringed Plovers (RP1) have successfully hatched 3 chicks which are now legging it around the place like little legends! The Ringed Plover pair in the southern N-colony still have two chicks also.

The high tides will be at bay for the next while which should give the terns a good chance to hatch out as many chicks as possible before a series of 4m+ tides starts from the 13th June...lets hope there's no easterly gales that week!!!

The terns are really starting to get aggressive now towards any gull, Hooded Crow, Kestrel or Oystercatcher that strays too close. They are also swooping closer to my head during nest checks!!! A Buzzard was seen hunting over the Buckthorn bushes & dunes on 1st June, but was driven away by a flock of corvids. We have caught & repatriated 3 more Hedgehogs since our last encounter with Sonic!

Wildlife Sightings:

Birds - Total species recorded so far - 94

Latest Additions - Short-eared Owl, Willow Warbler, Song Thrush, Tufted Duck & Greenshank.

A Short-eared Owl was seen hunting around Stringer's channels for most of the day on the 1st June, which was a nice surprise. It was not seen subsequently so presumably was a bird on passage to breeding grounds much further north (Iceland?).

The drake Wigeon is still present in Stringer's channel along with a drake Teal & a female Shoveler. A small bit of passage on the 3rd June involved 3 Arctic Terns moving north offshore, 30 Black-tailed Godwits & a Greenshank flying north overhead & a pair of Tufted Ducks that turned up in Stringer's channel. Up to 5 Little Egrets are still present.

Mammals - Grey Seal, Rabbit, Fox & Hedgehog.

Butterflies - Peacock, Green-veined White, Common Blue, Wall Brown, Small White & Orange-Tip.

Dragonflies & Damselflies - Blue-tailed Damselfly & Hairy Hawker.