Tommy was at Baltray for 10am to find Maurice, Laura and Sylvan already working away.  Baz and Sean, Peter, Kieran, Anto, Cathal, Jacque and Patricia all turned out to help.  We hired a tractor and trailer this year and that made a huge difference to the workload, along with the fact that we didn't have chicken wire on the outside - we had to dig it out last year as it had been buried by the spring tides.

Also a big thanks to Dominic for organising storage facilities.  We had a picinic break at 12:30 and then straight back to work, but at that stage we had the bulk of the work done and by about 3 pm it was finished and oh how naked the beach looked....... and how quiet without the chattering of our Little Terns.  Julie and Bella paid a visit to see how we were getting on and we all marvelled at the beauty of this special place. 

Louth Nature Trust would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the 2008 project.                   You all know who you are  - 
You are the volunteers who week in week out, in good weather, but mostly in poor weather turned out to warden the beach, always in good humour and without complaint.
You are the people who turned out to help with the fencing.
You are the people who raised funds or provided a service for the project.
You are the people who put your dogs on leads while in the area.
You are the people who used a different route for your walk so as to avoid the nesting area.
You are the people who came out to check on how the project was progressing.


Thank you to the NPWS who funded the fencing, without which the project could not have gone ahead. To Maurice Eakin and his rangers for the time given to the project, we could not have managed without this help.  To the Louth Ranger Kieran Buckley for his unstinting help and support, we wish you the best of luck with the Grey Partridge Project. 
I cannot finish without mentioning our own Maurice Conachy  -  priceless!!

A reminder that we are taking down the fence on Baltray beach tomorrow Saturday starting at 10am and we need as many people as possible to help with this.  Looking forward to seeing lots of you tomorrow  -  weather should be fine for this.

Baltray is relatively quiet today with very few Terns there.  I could see the younger Little Terns there with some adults, probably the parents who are staying until the young are fit to start the long journey to west Africa.  All of the other Tern types are gone.  Still plenty of Ringed Plover and Dunlin along with some Sanderling.  Lots of Hooded Crows on the beach, it certainly didn't take them long to realise that they were free to return to this area of the beach!
 

As the Little Tern season draws to a close, the fencing needs to be dismantled and taken away.  We have picked Saturday 30th August to do this, starting at 10am.  We will need all hands on deck for this, so this is a call to you all to come out to Baltray on that day please.   If we  get a good turn out, it will make the task much easier.  We look forward to seeing as many as possible on the day.

Went out at full tide today to check that we still have the rest of the youngest chicks and after a bit of looking I located them outside the nesting enclosure, all in the same area, so that's a relief!

We will need to set a date for the dismantling of the fencing in the next week or two, so we will need all possible hands on deck for that.

Weather conditions were bad yesterday with strong winds and driving rain.  The daytime tide was not especially high and everything looked fairly normal at full tide yesteday.  1 of the youngest chicks was moving around a lot and I was surprised that the parent was not brooding it as the conditions were so bad.

Today Sandra found a chick in that area that had died, probably due to the weather.  She could see the second chick which looked ok.  There should be 2 other chicks around that age so we will need to check over the next day or so to locate them and make sure that they are alive and well.

A count of Ringed Plovers on Thursday by Breffni had 440 of which at least 100 were juveniles.

Chicks progressing well with regular feeding going on.  They can usually be seen in the middle of Ringed Plovers and Dunlins outside the nesting enclosure.  A Starling in the enclosure rummaging around for food yesterday, greatly upset some of the Terns and they were diving on it though the Starling simply hissed back and continued feeding.  Just to be on the safe side, I clapped my hands to move it on. 

The large influx of Terns seems to have reduced in numbers. 

The volunteers on duty at Baltray came across a juvenile Kestrel which seemed to be starving.  I believe that Leo and Breffni were feeding it snails and Maurice was called out to give some expert advice.  Having fed the bird, hopefully that will give it enough energy to survive and improve its hunting skills.  I went out to snatch a photo of it as it sat on a post just above one of our signs.  I got a few photos and got really close before it flew off.

Tommy was told that an adult Kestrel was killed on the golf course in Baltray by a Peregrine on Tuesday, so that was probably the parent of the juvenile.

Just back from Baltray and our youngest Little Tern chicks are doing fine.  They are a distance from each other and the parents at the more northerly side are very protective, whichever side of the nesting enclosure you are.  2 joggers came up on the sea side of the enclosure and the Terns made such a racket that they stopped, read the signs and moved away altogether.  On the south side, I had great difficulty locating the 2 youngest chicks and it was only when I went up to the end and moved out towards the sea and looked back up the enclosure that I spotted chicks well outside and hiding behind a mound of sand and seaweed. 

A Kestral flew down along the nesting enclosure, chased and harassed by 8 or 10 Terns.  It continued into the sand dunes where it started hunting.  A Merlin went after the chicks yesterday and was chased away by the volunteer on duty.  The wardening is important at this late stage as these youngest chicks are still very vulnerable.

Even though the Little Tern breeding season may be drawing to a close and the nesting enclosure is quiet, there is plenty of activity to keep us all interested.  There is a huge influx of Terns at Baltray and they are a sight to behold!  They tend to take to the sky at regular intervals and especially when the sun is shining, they are a fabulous sight.  I reckon that there is probably in excess of 1,000 terns there at the moment, though they can be spread over quite an area of the shoreline.  

A junenile Peregrine Falcon did the rounds today, much to the irritation of the Little Terns.  Luckiy it kept going accross the river towards Mornington. 

No sign of the Arctic Skuas today, though I somehow expect to see them again as the large numbers of Terns must present a great feeding opportunity for them.

Large numbers of Kittiwakes and Ringed Plover on the beach, also some Knots resplendent in summer plumage.

Well the summer has moved on (what summer you may ask!) and the first batch of chicks have fledged which leaves us with the last batch of 10 chicks and they range in age from 4 days to 14 days. 

The full time wardening will wind down from the week-end after next i.e. 15th August.  At that stage the youngest chicks will be about 2 weeks old and will be flying well.  The fence will stay in place for a short time and we will continue to warden and monitor on a part time basis until they are fully fledged.

The wardening conditions over the past week or so have been very mixed and today we had long periods of rain.  When I was there today, sheltering in the tent from the rain, I ran out as I could hear and see that there was unrest with the Little Terns.  At first I thought that there was a bird of prey flying around the nesting enclosure, the barring on its underside reminding me of a Sparrow Hawk.  It was joined by another of its species and then a third.  These birds were flying at a more leisurely pace than a bird of prey and i could see a distictive shape to their tail.  They were not at all put off by the attacking terns, indeed they appeared to follow and attack the terns.  Despite rain covered optics, they turned out to be Arctic Skuas and these birds harass other birds until they drop their food which they catch in mid air, this is known as 'food piracy'.  5 of these birds spent time on the beach and left as the tide became full.  It was a pity that the viewing conditions were so poor, I have never had these birds fly over me so close! 

We lost our last 2 eggs to the Spring Tides in the early hours of Saturday morning.  This was the last nest so our hatching is now complete with a total of 30 chicks.  With 20 fully fledged we now have the second batch ranging in age from 2 to 11 days. 

I was surprised to see 3 newly hatched Ringed Plover chicks running around today, I had thought that they were finished breeding at this stage.  They seem to have had a bumper year, a really successful breeding season.  As they also nest in shingle, they benefit from the Baltray Project.

Some photos taken today.

Terry Flanagan from Mooney on RTE Radio 1 visited Baltray and recorded an interview with Sandra who is the co-ordinator of the Little Tern Conservation Project and chairperson of Louth Nature Trust.  This interview will be broadcast today on the Mooney show which runs from 3pm until 4.30pm.