Life of the little terns
Colin Smale looks at the ups and downs of one of Lincolnshire’s favourite seabirds.
Our little terns have been overwintering among the lions, hippos, and crocodiles of Africa, but in mid-April they will return to our shores to nest again, sometimes in the very same spot as last year.
Climate change, predation, human disturbance and encroaching marram grass have greatly affected our little tern population. I became acquainted with them back in the 1960s/70s when up to 52 pairs used to breed on the outer reaches of Tetney Marsh and they remain my favourite seabird. There were two more colonies nearby that had about nine pairs each, and a colony at Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve.
They are a summer visitor to our shores, arriving here to breed in the third week of April. Their excited chattering calls really bring the saltmarsh to life.
On arrival they immediately claim the exact nest site (almost to the inch) that they occupied last year and when one considers they have wintered in West Africa, mainly in the Gulf of Guinea (a round trip of approx. 7,000 miles) it’s a staggering feat of navigation.
A little tern breeding in 2018 in North Wales was found to be 25 years old, so just how many miles do they clock up in a lifetime?
Overcoming challenges
Their nest is a simple well-camouflaged shallow scrape in the sand or shingle, sometimes they decorate the nest with small pink or white shells.
Their two-or-three spotted eggs take a couple of weeks to hatch and once the first egg is laid their lives get extremely complicated indeed. It seems everything wants to either eat or destroy those precious eggs!
As a colony they will all rise up and drive off any passing crow or gull, but there is very little they can do about the weather. A strong wind can whip up the sand and fill the nests in minutes. Nocturnal visits from foxes or hedgehogs are yet another threat.
Their attempts to simply reproduce each year continue to suffer.
They like a clear view right across the sands and usually pretty near the high tide line, which changes daily. Some of the early arrivals often get flooded out by high tides, but nature has a way of dealing with that and kind of re-sets the clock.
The ones that have just flooded out immediately nest on higher ground where others have survived and by the time the next high tide arrives, all the chicks in the colony have hatched and can run to high ground and are safe.
Sadly, we humans like to play with our 4WD, kite surf, etc. exactly where terns like to breed and now the only place these terns can breed in our county is at Gibraltar Point, where a prodigious amount of effort is made by the resident wardens to protect them.
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