The chick count has gone up to 14 with 7 nests hatched.  There are 6 more nests with 12 eggs yet to hatch over the next week or two.  A lot of new nesting activity all around the enclosure so we hope that the nest count will increase over the next few days. 

As an emergency measure we extended the wardening last night.  We finished up at midnight and started again at 3:30 am. 

Around 4 am the Gulls started swooping on the nesting enclosure and the 2 wardens on duty chased off a number of attacks so there were no further losses.  We clearly need wardening at first light and we will continue this if we possibly can.  Thank goodness for the fantastic volunteers who are making this possible!!

When I scan the enclosure, it's sad to see the nest markers beside all those empty nests but the Little Terns waste no time.  There is a huge amount of activity with courtship displays and nest digging, it's sometimes quite frantic and can be really spectacular to watch. 

When we left Baltray at 10:30 pm last night we had 33 active nests with 66 eggs and 4 chicks.  When wardening commenced this morning at 6 am, to our horror we found that a serious predation had occured.  Having done a complete check, we are now left with 11 nests with 20 eggs and 6 chicks (2 hatched since last night). 

We have the nesting enclosure divided into 6 zones and predation took place in all zones.  We are satisfied that this was an avian attack as there is no evidence of entry or footprints and the entire enclosure is protected by electric fencing with each zone having its own fencing.  There are marks at 1 zone as if something was at the fence but the marks are confined to the fence area of that 1 zone.

The question is what type of bird carried out the attack?  Crows have been quiet for the past couple of weeks but the gulls have looked quite threatening and the Little Terns have been chasing them away from the area.  A Grey Heron has been feeding out at the beach for the past couple of days. 

The lack of night-time wardening is a problem.  With wardening done entirely on a voluntary basis, we just cannot stretch to cover nights.  As it is, our volunteer wardens cover 16 to 17 hours per day.  They are a great group of people without whom we just could not run this project.

Our chicks all escaped predation, we were especially worried about nest 2 as the second chick only hatched last night.  There was no sign of them this morning and all other nests in that area bar 1 were predated.  We were so relieved to discover them later today looking in good shape.

Nest 3 today with 2 chicks.


Nest number 2 chicks which miraculously escaped predation last night. 
Only 1 other nest in this zone was not predated.

Another chick hatched yesterday, and we expect the second egg in that nest should hatch this morning. 

We have also found one more nest.  This brings our count to 35 nests, 3 chicks and 67 eggs. 
Below is a photo of the latest chick to hatch, and a photo of the first 2 hatched who are now 6 days old.  The first 2 little chicks should be making their first attempts at flying by the end of the week, which will greatly improve their chances of survival.

Latest chick:

We have had some really unpleasant weather over the past week with heavy rain and strong wind which is always more noticeable on the beach.  Visibility can be very limited under these conditions but we continue the wardening regardless of the weather. 

Hooded Crows and Rooks have not been a particular problem over the past week or so but we cannot afford to relax as they are intelligent birds and will take advantage if the area is left untended.  The river area needs to be checked regularly as they are often around the water edge and that is close to the nesting area. 

The Little Terns are following and harassing Gulls as they pass over the enclosure but they have not been a particular problem so far.

The 2 chicks are doing fine.  Because of the bad weather the parent continues to brood the chicks which means that there is just 1 parent bringing food in.  In good warm conditions, the chicks could be left untended so that both parents could provide  food.  The weather forecast for the coming week is quite mixed.  We may have more chicks hatching towards the end of the week.

A couple of photos of the first chicks below.

The nest count is now at 34, with 62 eggs and 2 chicks.  There still appear to be some Little Terns preparing to nest so this figure could still increase.  It is a fantastic number of nests considering that last year we had 21 nests with 44 eggs.

The first Little Tern chicks at Baltray hatched this morning.  There are 2 chicks in the nest, and this is in and around the time we expected the them to hatch.  We expect that there will be a gap now before we see any more, as this first nest was laid and incubated ahead of the rest.

Ringed Plover eggs can be very similar to the Little Tern eggs, the nest with 4 eggs below belongs to a Ringed Plover.  The nests with 3 eggs and 2 eggs both belong to a Little Tern, notice how different the colours can be.

 

The nest count has risen to 31, although we think that 4 of these might be abandoned, so the more realistic count is 27 nests with 54 eggs. 

There is 1 nest with 3 eggs, a lot with 2, and some with only 1 egg. 

The numbers are increasing daily, so we think that there may still be some new nests, and the egg number should certainly increase.

The shingle area of the beach is much bigger than last year, stretching from South to North.  We put the string cordon around most of this and put the inner fencing on a smaller area. 

We now find that the Little Terns have nested outside the fence so we have had to extend both the string cordon and the electric fencing Southward.  This is an area that could be prone to flooding if we have a spring tide along with strong winds, so fingers crossed for good weather at the beginning of July when the next spring tides are due.

We have also had to extend the inner fencing Northward, so the nesting area is very spread out which makes wardening difficult.  Thankfully the hooded crows and rooks have not been giving trouble over the last few days.

The nest count at Baltray has now reached 27 and we think still rising, with a total so far of 46 eggs.

We think that 3 of the nests may be first attempts which were abandoned, each with 1 egg, so this would leave 24 nests, which is already up on last year, and at least 43 eggs.

We have to keep our fingers crossed that with the fencing and wardening that we'll manage to keep predators at bay. 

The nest count has reached 22 and activity indicates that the nest numbers are likely to rise.  Hooded Crows and Rooks are a worry and wardening is in place from very early morning until darkness.  Our volunteers who are a vital part of this project are on high alert for these crows.

The Little Terns have nested on all of the enclosed area and in addiition to that, they have also nested on a shingle area south of the original enclosure so we have had to extend it to protect the newly discovered nests. 

These little birds are incredibely noisy and protective, they are a sight to be seen, fearlessly chasing off potential predators such as corvids and gulls that are much, much bigger than themselves. 

The nest count at Baltray has finally hit double figures, with the count yesterday being 14.  The signs are that there are currently more nests than the 14, but as darkness fell last night we ran out of time, and we expect to find more today. 

The number of nests on the beach rose to 7 as of yesterday.  3 nests have 2 eggs in them, and the remaining 4 nests have 1 egg each in them.  One of the birds with 2 eggs has been incubating the eggs for a few days so that clutch is complete.  The others only tend their eggs now and then until they are ready to incubate.  This makes locating the nests very tricky, when the birds aren't at their nests they are more or less impossible to find.  There may well be more than 7 nests there already, we should get a better handle on figure over the next few days.  Photo of nest number 7 below.



There are lots of Ringed Plover chicks running around on the beach now too, several clutches seem to have hatched in the last few days, so it appears to be a very successful year for them so far.

The sunset was fantastic at Baltray last night......

The nest count has increased to 5 nests as of this morning.  There's a good chance that we might locate more this evening.  Yesterday the Little Terns' behaviour seemed to have changed and they had become more settled. 

Until yesterday some of them had been checking out areas on another ridge further out towards the sea, but as the spring tide approaches and the tide is coming in further, this ridge is no longer an option for them as the sea is washing over it.  As a result, more of them are now settling in the fenced off enclosure.  We will be hoping that there won't be strong winds to accompany the spring tide.  Last year unseasonal storms came with the June spring tide and washed away a lot of nests, so we'll be hoping this won't be repeated this year.

A second Little Tern nest has been found, with one egg in it so far.

A Ringed Plover chick was running around on the beach on Friday night, so they have got off to a good start.