The two-day tour of the Essex coast
was primarily to look at the fortunes of the Little Tern. By the time we had finished, and understood
the problems, we were all a little sterner.
Little Terns have not been doing well recently; in Essex or further
afield in the south-east. They suffer
from disturbance by humans, competition from gulls and flooding from high
tides. And everything seems to like to
eat them; from Foxes, Stoats and Hedgehogs, to Kestrels and owls. Much of this comes down to an increasing lack
of safe nesting sites on our over-crowded coastlines.
Whilst the beaches clearly have
disturbance issues, the Essex coast has many small saltmarsh islands amongst
its estuaries and creeks. We found 3,500+
pairs of Black-headed Gull, 100+ pairs of Herring Gull, 56 pairs of Common
Tern, 30+ pairs of Oystercatcher and 8 pairs of Ringed Plover. More surprisingly, a total of 29
Mediterranean Gulls were noted, including at least 6 on nests. Little Terns amounted to 41 nesting pairs,
with 20 or so additional birds.
The islands perhaps provide an answer
for the Little Terns. Many of the
nesting pairs are on areas of dumped dredging or shellfish remains. The saltmarsh islands are not attractive nor
very accessible to people or ground predators.
A partnership with harbourmasters and fishery interests might bring
about the regular recharging of small areas of suitable nesting habitat for the
terns.
Elsewhere in East Anglia, news is of
mixed fortunes for Little Terns, with the usual problems of flooding out and
predation. However, up to 200 pairs near
Winterton is excellent and North Norfolk may still have 400 active nests. A
spell of calm weather might be helpful!
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