2015 East Coast Tern Projects

BirdWatch Ireland has a long history of undertaking wardening, conservation, monitoring and research at breeding colonies of vulnerable tern species along the east coast. This work continues in 2015 with most of the terns now at their respective nesting sites and getting on with the business of courtship, display, mate selection and egg laying.

All of these breeding sites are wardened or monitored by trained seabird staff. Some of the colonies are safe to view for the public while others are not. Certain sites however even call for members of the public to get involved as volunteer wardens!

Information relating to the birds, access and viewing options at each site can be found below:

(1) Baltray, Co. Louth

The sandy beach at Baltray near Drogheda is home to a colony of Little Terns which has benefited greatly from protective fencing and round-the-clock wardening provided by a joint BirdWatch Ireland and Louth Nature Trust project which has seen the population of breeding birds here rise to over 100 pairs. Members of the public are encouraged to visit the project to view and learn more about Little Terns but please follow the designated route on site around the colony and heed instructions given by the wardens.

Updates from Baltray can be found on the Louth Nature Trust Little Tern blog.

Volunteer! To volunteer at Baltray beach please contact Breffni Martin (bmartin@regintel.com) or call the site hotline 086 2434874

Little Tern © Terry O'Rourke

(2) Rockabill, Co. Dublin

Home to Europe's largest Roseate Tern colony with upwards of 1,250 breeding pairs (most of which raise their young in custom made nest boxes). All these Roseates alongside over 2,000 pairs of Commons Terns, small numbers of Arctic Terns plus Kittiwakes and Black Guillemots make this isolated rocky island a hectic place to work! 

Rockabill is off limits during the breeding season but you can keep up to speed with all the latest developments by checking out the excellent Rockablog or by following the wardens Brian Burke and Andrew Power on Twitter.

Alternatively, why not book a boat trip with Skerries Sea Tours and view the Rockabill terns from a safe distance at sea?

Roseate Tern in a nest box © Brian Burke

Working on Rockabill is not for the faint-hearted! © Brian Burke

(3) Dublin Port, Co. Dublin

A bustling colony of up to 500 pairs of Common Terns and up to 100 pairs of Arctic Terns breed within the confines of Dublin Port along the River Liffey where the birds are monitored annually by staff from BirdWatch Ireland. New custom built tern rafts have been put in place for the terns by the Dublin Port Company, one in the Tolka Estuary and one in the River Liffey which is on view from the base of the Great South Wall. This is an ideal location to watch the terns from a safe distance where they can be seen travelling to and fro on foraging trips, beaks full of fish for their hungry chicks.

Keep an eye on the Dublin Bay Birds Project blog for updates on the Dublin Port terns.

Arctic Tern © Dick Coombes

(4) Dalkey, Co. Dublin

The islands off Coliemore Harbour at Dalkey host a small mixed colony of Common, Arctic and Roseate Terns. Numbers fluctuate year on year in response to weather, storms and disturbance. Please do not land on the islands if kayaking, scuba diving or sailing in the area as it will cause fatal disturbance to eggs and chicks. Alternatively, the terns can be viewed safely from Coliemore Harbour where a permanent telescope is in place and also during organised tern watch events held by the South Dublin Branch of BirdWatch Ireland every Tuesday evening in July from 6:30pm-8pm.

For more information see the Dalkey Tern Project webpage or download the information leaflet.

Tern watch event at Coliemore Harbour

(5) Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow

The Little Tern conservation project at Kilcoole has been running since the 1980's when just 20 pairs could be found. Thanks to the installation of protective fencing around the colony during the breeding season along with 24/7 wardening from BirdWatch Ireland staff and volunteers between May and August, the colony has now grown to record levels with 120 nesting pairs in 2014! Open to the public, this is a great site to visit to see conservation work in action with wardens on hand to aid viewing of one of Ireland's rarest seabirds through telescopes from a safe distance. Several organised BirdWatch Ireland branch events are also held here throughout the summer.

Updates from Kilcoole can be found on the Little Tern Conservation Project blog and a 20 minute documentary about the project can be watched online via the Crow Crag Production website.

Volunteer! To volunteer at Kilcoole please contact the project wardens at littletern@birdwatchireland.ie

Protective fencing around the tern colony at Kilcoole © Niall Keogh

Little Tern chick and egg © Peter Cutler/Andrew Power

Update on BirdWatch Ireland's East Coast Tern Colonies - June 2014

BirdWatch Ireland is responsible for the protection, management and monitoring of terns at 5 key east coast colonies. Terns are small, graceful seabirds that make spectacular plunge-dives to catch small fish. Five tern species nest in Ireland:

• Common Tern
• Arctic Tern
• Roseate Tern
• Sandwich Tern
• Little Tern

Roseate Tern, surely one of Ireland's most graceful-looking birds
(Photo: Billy Clarke)

Now, in late June, the first chicks are hatching at most colonies so it is well worth paying a visit to one of them in the coming weeks:

Baltray, Co. Louth: 70-100 pairs of Little Terns

The colony is located at the Haven, on the north side of the mouth of the River Boyne. Drive past the entrance to Baltray Golf Club and proceed down a very poorly surfaced road to a locked gate. Park, cross the stile and walk on the track through the dunes. When you see signs warning signs (electric fences and requests to keep dogs on leashes) try to locate the warden or a volunteer  near the colony and they will give you an update. Read more on the Louth Nature Trust Little Tern Blog.

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Rockabill Island, north Co. Dublin: Roseate, Common and Arctic Terns (probably at least 2,500 pairs)

This is the largest single colony of Roseate Terns in Europe.  You can follow the work of our two resident wardens via their popular "Rockablog". Landing on the island is not allowed during the nesting season, but Skerries Sea Tours run trips out to the island to view the spectacle from the boat at a safe distance.

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Dublin Port: Common (400-500 pairs) and Arctic Terns (50-70 pairs)

This colony is on old ship mooring "dolphins" in the River Liffey.  It is best viewed from the Holyhead (Wales) ferries! Updates about the terns and waders of Dublin Bay are posted on our Dublin Bay Birds Blog.

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Dalkey Island, south Co. Dublin: mostly Arctic Terns (40 pairs) plus one pair of Roseate Terns

Public viewing with the experts from BirdWatch Ireland's South Dublin Branch, every Tuesday evening in July (i.e., 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th) at Coliemore Harbour in Dalkey, from 18:30 to 20:00.  For more details on the Dalkey Tern Project, please see the BirdWatch Ireland South Dublin Branch website.

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Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow: 108 pairs of Little Terns

The colony can be reached by an easy 15 minute walk south along the coast from Kilcoole Railway Station carpark. When you see signs and the blackboard with recent bird news, look out for a warden and they will be happy to show you the birds. Please see the wardens' Kilcoole Little Tern Blog for more information.

Dr. Stephen Newton
Senior Seabird Conservation Officer
BirdWatch Ireland

Nationwide Roseate Terns: Watch Online

In case you missed the special Nationwide programme about BirdWatch Ireland's Roseate Tern conservation work on Rockabill that was shown on RTÉ One last Friday, or indeed if you'd like to see it again, you can watch it online at...

www.rte.ie/player/#!v=10056225

Rockabill Roseate Terns © Maeve Maher-McWilliams

Rockabill Roseates on TV

As reported back in August, many of our tern colonies were hit hard this summer by a combination of poor weather and predation. The colony of Roseate Terns breeding on Rockabill, off Skerries in North Dublin has been going from strength to strength however. This is due to a combination of determined wardening along with the provision of hundreds of specially constructed nestboxes, the result of which being an all time high of 1,200 breeding pairs of this threatened seabird species in 2012.

Lots of birdwatchers contact us to ask if they can visit Rockabill to see the tern colony for themselves. It's off limits to visitors however, but thanks to the team from RTÉ's Nationwide we are at least able to bring you the next best thing: this Friday's programme will include a special feature about the tern colony. Nationwide presenter Ann Cassin came over to Rockabill in July to see the chicks take their first flight, and the programme will also showcase the great work of BirdWatch Ireland and NPWS staff and volunteers, with contributions from our Fingal Branch and Balbriggan Community College students who make many of the tern nextboxes for us.

Tune in to Nationwide on RTÉ One at 7:00pm this Friday, 28th September as we bring you all the sights and sounds (if sadly not the smells!) of this incredible seabird colony.

Roseate Terns on Rockabill, August 2012 © Niall Keogh

East Coast Terns have a tough time of it in 2012

The summer of 2012 has broken meteorological records, most notably in the amount of rainfall dumped on us and the lack of sunshine.  Amongst the seabirds, east coast tern colonies are amongst the largest and usually the most productive in the country, and although the 2012 breeding season broke records, a lot of them were not good news stories.

Terns are small graceful, swallow-like seabirds which perform spectacular plunge-dives to catch the fish that make up their diet. Most are greyish or white in colour with black caps and all five Irish species can be told apart on the basis of size and bill colour.  Little Terns are the smallest, with yellow bills tipped with black; Sandwich Terns are the largest with black bills tipped with yellow.  The three middle-sized terns, namely Roseate, Common and Arctic, have black or red bills.  All species winter along the west and southern African coast and migrate north to breed in Irish waters were they are reliant on a good supply of small fish, notably Sprats, sandeels and whitefish (Pollock and Saithe).

Ireland's five species of breeding tern: all have uniquely coloured bills that help distinguish them © Michael O'Clery 

On the east coast, we have seven principal tern colonies, working north to south:

• Baltray, Louth – Little Terns
• Rockabill, Dublin – Roseate, Common & Arctic Terns
• Dublin Port – Common & Arctic Terns
• Dalkey Islands, Dublin - Roseate, Common & Arctic Terns
• Kilcoole, Wicklow – Little Terns
• Wexford Harbour – Little Terns
• Our Lady’s Island Lake, Wexford – Sandwich, Roseate, Common & Arctic Terns

All tern colonies are protected and most are managed or wardened to some extent by staff and volunteers from BirdWatch Ireland, National Parks & Wildlife Service and Louth Nature Trust.

Of all the species, Little Tern colonies fared poorest; two colonies are on ‘mainland’ beaches whilst the Wexford harbour birds nest on a sandbank.  All colonies, totalling 250-300 pairs, were sitting on eggs (2 or 3) when they were washed away in early June by high tides backed by easterly winds.  Some pairs re-laid eggs a week or two later but again lost these to more wind-backed waves, and those at our flagship Kilcoole colony were not able to lay a third clutch and gave up.  A small number of pairs at Baltray survived the later storms and 24 young fledged.

Little Tern  © John Fox

Record numbers of Roseate Terns nested on Rockabill, over 1,200 pairs; most of these reared a single chick, which was not bad considering the rain . . . though they do have cosy nest boxes to shelter in thanks to the woodwork students at Balbriggan Community College.  The Common Terns and Arctic Terns did not fare so well and fledged well under a single young per pair.

Roseate Terns on custom-made nestboxes on Rockabill island, off Skerries, Co. Dublin © Maeve Maher-McWilliams  

Dublin Port held record numbers of Common Tern nests (over 500) but once chicks started hatching, a mystery predator(s) started killing them.  Although not caught in the act, we believe rats had managed to swim out to the colony, which is located in the River Liffey, and climb the vertical wooden pilings and concrete walls that support the platforms.  Virtually all chicks were lost in this killing spree.  We now have the winter to work out how to prevent rats from accessing the colony next summer.

Dalkey Island supports a small mixed colony of terns and is overseen by members of BirdWatch Ireland’s South Dublin Branch.  Access to the colony was very limited due to the stormy weather and most early nesting attempts were lost.  However, some Arctic Terns may have fledged young on another islet.  One pair of Common Terns, from either Dublin Port or Dalkey, laid a clutch of eggs in late July on a yacht in Dún Laoghaire Harbour belonging to a member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club.  These hatched successfully and were moved to a specially adapted pontoon moored beside the yacht.  At the time of writing, they are thriving and we have discovered one of the parents was ringed as a chick at the Dublin Port colony in 2002: ten years old and still going strong!

A storm-wave washes completely over the main tern colony on Maiden's Rock, Dalkey, Co. Dublin © Michael Ryan

Our Lady’s Island Lake in Co. Wexford is home to our biggest Sandwich Tern colony and occasionally this has held 2,000 pairs.  This summer nesting numbers were down, at just under 1,700 pairs.  However, as an early nesting species they seemed to produce a decent number of fledged young.  Arctic Terns fared poorly; many nest close to the lake edge and were flooded or washed away with rising water levels due to all the rain.  Another mystery predator, this time probably a Stoat, killed a significant number of Roseate Tern chicks fairly late in the season and overall a maximum of 91 chicks probably fledged from the 126 pairs that laid eggs.  This ‘productivity’ was similar to that at Rockabill.

Let’s hope for a better summer in 2013?

Dr. Stephen Newton
Senior Conservation Officer - Seabirds
BirdWatch Ireland

South Dublin Seabird Outings

The South Dublin Branch of BirdWatch Ireland will be hosting a series of seabird events at Dalkey every Tuesday evening in July. These events are free of charge & all are welcome to attend.

Dates: Tuesdays 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th & 31st July.
Time: 18:30pm to 20:00pm
Location: Coliemore Harbour, Dalkey, Co. Dublin.
Details: Dalkey seabird viewing evenings with BirdWatch Ireland experts on hand to show visitors the breeding terns & other species of seabird such as auks, gulls & shearwaters. No walking required. These events are in conjunction with Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

A pdf copy of the Dalkey Tern Project leaflet can be found on the DLRCoCo. website by following this link.

Arctic Tern © Anthony McGeehan

Little Tern Conservation

The Little Tern (Sternula albifrons) colony at Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow is wardened every year from May to August by BirdWatch Ireland staff working in conjunction with the National Parks & Wildlife Service.

The colony is viewable to the public throughout the season & group outings are catered for on request (contact the wardens at littletern@birdwatchireland.ie to organise such a group visit).

Feel free to visit the project at any stage throughout the season where on-site wardens will be more than happy to show you the breeding birds & answer any questions you may have. 

More information can be found on the project blog where you can also keep up to speed with all the latest news on the Little Terns as well as general wildlife sightings in the area.

www.littleternconservation.blogspot.com

Little Tern © Niall Keogh