Birdwatch Ireland has said that 2024 was a “very successful year for Little Terns on the east coast of Ireland.
It is reporting increased nesting numbers across all of the colonies managed by BirdWatch Ireland, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, BirdWatch Ireland Fingal Branch and Louth Nature Trust.
“While everything didn’t always go according to plan, the number of chicks fledged overall was pretty good too,” it has said in its newsletter.
The conservation of Little Terns at Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, is a National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) project, run by BirdWatch Ireland in 2024.
The first Little Tern eggs were laid there on May 9th, almost a week earlier than usual, it says.
At peak in early June, the project recorded over 285 nesting pairs of Little Terns at Kilcoole.
“This is the highest-ever number for the project and a long way from the 14 pairs recorded at the project’s onset many years ago,”it says.
Kilcoole is by far the biggest colony of Little Terns in Ireland, and one of the biggest in all of Ireland and Britain, which Birdwatch Ireland described as “a testament to many years of conservation efforts”, working with the NPWS.
It says that it knows from ringing studies that Kilcoole-born birds have moved to other Irish colonies to nest, helping those colonies grow.
In early June, the combination of Hooded Crow predation, stormy weather and a high tide led to the loss of many chicks, it says.
“If these impacts happened earlier in the season when most were still on their eggs, there would have been the time and opportunity for birds to relay. Unfortunately, because of the timing in mid-June, many of the birds were too late to try again,” Kilcoole Little Tern Project manager Brian Burke said.
However the rest of the season went smoothly and the number of chicks that ultimately fledged was similar to previous years.
“The Kilcoole Little Tern conservation project is a fantastic example of what can be achieved with long-term funding and continued efforts to address conservation problems and develop expertise over time,” Burke said.
“Kilcoole wasn’t an immediate success, but over time we’ve worked closely with NPWS to address the issues the birds face and to get to the stage where we have more good years than bad years,” he said.
