Helicopter required for infrastructure upgrade on Anglesey tern site

It’s this time of the year again when a number of our UK birds are winging their way back from their wintering grounds such as Africa or the Antarctic! The arrival of our migrant seabirds to our coasts marks the end of spring and the start summer!

Roseate tern in flight by Brian Burke

As a result, in advance of their return and with added funds from our LIFE project, wardens have been able to start preparing to the colonies earlier in the season. This includes clearing the rampant vegetation growth and discouraging large gulls from taking over tern’s nesting areas. ​

2018 wardens on the Skerries setting out nest boxes and tern decoys (Photo Credit: Ben Dymond)

Many offshore colonies such as Rockabill, Coquet Island and the Skerries have residential wardens living on the remote islands throughout the season. They use the former quarters of lighthouse keepers and monitor the breeding terns using telescopes and observation hides.

The Skerries, located off the coast of Anglesey (Photo Credit: Ben Dymond)

Due to the tern colonies being understandably coastal based, both the wardens and seabirds have to endure unseasonable weather. Over the years, even equipment and infrastructures like hides used across all of our project sites cannot withstand the passage of time and constant exposure to sea salt.
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The replacing of such infrastructure is not always easy since the terrain is rugged and separated from the mainland by water. It’s incredibly important to get this done in advance of the season as without a working hide, the wardens would not be able to monitor the colony including identifying what the terns feed their chicks and the fates of individual nests. All of this is used to help direct the future management and protection of the terns.

The new observation hide, ready to be transported to the coast (Photo Credit: Ian Hawkins)

At some sites, it is possible to bring the dissembled parts of an observation hide across by boat, but in case of one of our Anglesey sites, it was decided that a helicopter would be the only method to transport the new hide.
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It wasn’t however as easy as it sounds; with many previous attempts abandoned due to poor weather, the end of April was our last chance. On the day, poor weather delayed the trip by about three hours! Fortunately, once the helicopter crew made it to the island, it all went smoothly. We also managed to get the old hide off the island, though the helicopter had to drag it through the sea to stop it spinning!

Once at the coast, the hide was airlifted by a helicopter to the island (Photo Credit: Ian Hawkins)

This puts things in perspective though, how something quite simple on mainland can be much more difficult to do on rocky shores. We hope that the hide will not require replacing for many years to come.
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With the new hide in place, the wardens will make full use of it for the monitoring of terns, which have already started to settle and will soon be on eggs!