The Forth Islands SPA (Special Protected Area) used to be the main breeding area for roseate terns in Scotland, however due to increased predation, the loss of nesting habitat and the resulting competition for the remaining areas, they have not been recorded breeding at any of the islands (or in the rest of Scotland) since 2009.

Along with the loss of roseate terns, the presence of other tern species declined in the Forth Islands SPA, with currently only two common tern colonies remaining: Long Craig Island and the Isle of May. Although not within the SPA, there is also a common tern colony at Leith Docks.

Scottish Natural Heritage manages the Isle of May and recently they have invested a lot of effort to create tern nesting areas with some positive results. In 2017, Arctic terns increased with 832 pairs and there were 29 pairs of common terns. After an eight-year hiatus, Sandwich terns were recorded nesting in 2016 and 2017.

Long Craig Island, managed by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, is the only site within the Forth Island SPA, where the LIFE Project is involved. In 2017, there were 165 pairs of common terns nesting there and in 2016, the wardens recorded a roseate tern and common tern hybrid pair.

One of the key objectives of the Project is to restore the five sites which have historically supported breeding roseate terns. Through improving and boosting the survival of the common tern colonies may result in roseate terns being more inclined to recolonise these areas in the future.

​As Long Craig Island has limited nesting space for terns as a result of spring high tides; the LIFE Project deployed a 64 square metre raft in Port Edgar Marina just 1.5 km away from the island to support the population. It replaces an old pontoon, which was the site of a common tern colony, but which was badly damaged in the winter storms of 2014/15. The new raft will provide the terns at Long Craig additional nesting place which is both safe from flooding and mammalian predators on the mainland.

​The materials for the raft arrived to Port Edgar Marina and was subsequently assembled on the jetty as per design by KAMES. Overall, the raft took a full 3 days to build and install into its designated space.

The main frame of the raft is made of galvanised steel and the decking is supported on pressure treated, Scottish grown Douglas Fir timber beams and secured using stainless steel fixings. The decking is made of recycled polyethylene planks covered with a ground geomembrane.

For buoyancy, there are 10 floats, of which each are filled with 790 litres of expanded closed cell polyurethane and the raft has been anchored with 4 huge, 100 Kg self-embedding anchors on 40mm thick chains.

Once in place, the surface of the raft was covered in over 1 tonne of mixed source crushed shells to replicate the tern’s natural habitat. A number of shelters were also added to provide tern chick’s opportunity to hide from the elements or avian predators.

There are also 8 concrete tern decoys which simulate nesting birds in order attract passing terns to the new nesting area. These have been placed following RSPB guidance.

While the exchange of knowledge and networking are surely stimulating endeavours, without a formal way of operating, clear set of actions and a follow up, these activities rarely produce a real difference for birds. It takes a lot of commitment from participating organisations and, above all, individuals who take part in such exchanges, to take the relationship to another level. In case of the networking exchanges between French, Irish and British roseate tern colony managers, we have managed to build a working relationship and bring a colossal change to the management and monitoring practices in France. 

So far, French colony managers have had a very much hands-off approach, providing only basic stone shelters and minimum monitoring effort to avoid disturbance. The emphasis has been on “naturalness” of the colonies. This, together with human disturbance and predation, has resulted in a very low year-on-year productivity.

Last year, we have visited all the current and former roseate tern colonies during a five-day trip to Brittany. It was obviously very useful to learn about local constraints, management practices, etc., which allowed us to come up with a set of recommendations for the two main colonies. Moreover, we have built strong relationships, which expand beyond purely professional sphere.

​Besides being a really friendly bunch of people (us including), dinners, stayovers, picnics with obligatory wine or cider made the whole experience bounding and lingering in our memories. However, what really made a difference was an idea to invite French colleagues to Coquet. It seems that only then the concept of creating artificial nesting habitats and intensifying monitoring efforts landed on fertile soil, which would otherwise be difficult to achieve with any number of presentations and elucidations. ​

Not surprisingly then, last week I found myself on the train to Brittany with the excellent company of Paul Morrison (Coquet) and Stephen Newton (Rockabill) to help Bretagne Vivante creating their first ever terraces and deploying nest boxes. Working clothes, French berets with the LIFE project logo and other gadgets – we were gearing up for hard work. 

After the Île aux Dames colony collapsed in 2011, the main two colonies are currently located in Île aux Moutons (43 pairs last year) in the south coast of Brittany and Île de La Colombière, located near St Malo in the north.

We have landed on Île aux Moutons with a bunch of Bretagne Vivante staff and volunteers in a beautiful weather; 100 boxes ready (made by local schoolkids), geotextile deployed to kill the vegetation over winter, shingle from the nearby beach ready. We are keen to work, but not before an obligatory cup of coffee – this is France after all.

Steve was orchestrating the location and direction of facing the nest boxes in relation to the planned monitoring hide. The rest of us removed stones, cleared vegetation, created patches of shingle and set the nest boxes. We have decided to go for a combination of patch conditions to check what the birds might prefer, ranging from boxes on shingle, bare ground and treated land. We also removed rock shelters, as they don’t provide adequate shelter, compared to nest boxes. The work was a success, everybody was in high spirit, enhanced by excellent picnic, wine and local cider as mentioned above – obligatoire.

The next day, we visited Île de La Colombière – a much smaller colony, which supported 6 pairs in 2017 – hence only 40 boxes. Here too, we were accompanied by the local staff and volunteers. The weather on the north side of Brittany was not as forgiving as the day before, our worries deepened when we saw a little grey plastic boat to take us to the island. We had enough skippers between us to decide that after all we can sail. The job was obviously quicker, but we found signs of rats, as the island is close to the shore and accessible by foot in the low tide. The local managers will be working on eradicating the rats before the coming season.
​
Plus, if you need us, we are here to help – the “special” relationship does not end with Brexit.

Blog Post from Chris Wynne, Conservation Officer, North Wales Wildlife Trust

Situated on a series of small islands in the lagoon, over the last decade Cemlyn’s tern colony, and in particular the Sandwich terns, have fared remarkably well.

​The five-year (2012-2016) average breeding population for Sandwich terns is 2400 pairs with an increasing trend. There is an average mean clutch size of 1.42 and productivity estimated at 0.73 over the same period.

The success of the Sandwich tern colony is remarkable –the only Welsh colony, it currently stands at about 20% of the UK population and 3% of the world population. However, this has also resulted in competition for nesting space with other tern species and disturbance for the later breeding species, especially by near fledged chicks.

2017 also produced a dramatic and catastrophic break in the Sandwich tern’s breeding population with a small family of otters devastating the colony causing complete abandonment. We are currently preparing work to help us prevent a repeat of this in 2018.
​
The outlook for common and Arctic terns is less rosy with the small mixed colony of 30-60 birds having a very low productivity (0.02 or thereabouts) in recent years. In addition, there is still a notable absence of roseate terns breeding at Cemlyn and although in 2015 a pair may have “possibly” bred – based on observations of behaviour - no confirmed nest was found. The importance of restoring and boosting the common tern colony to attract breeding roseate terns to a site is well established. 

Overall, the colony faces numerous threats; with predation from large gulls and mammals being the short-term cause while in the longer-term, climate change could reduce the availability of safe breeding habitat.  The predicted increase in frequency and strength of winter storms could result in a breach to the shingle ridge at Cemlyn (which currently protect the tern islands) and as a consequence increase the risk of  
the colony flooding.
​
The additional threat posed by the new nuclear power station at Wylfa, the main site for which is approximately a km away, is also substantial. Of particular relevance is the proposed breakwater at Porth y Pistyll which could lead to changes in coastal geomorphological process in Cemlyn, including accelerating and/or altering the movement of shingle.

​The Core Management Plan for the Cemlyn Special Protected Area (SPA)/Special Area of Conservation (SAC) identifies the need to provide adequate space and type of habitat on the islands to support the breeding colony – space for nests and normal bird behaviour. Over the decades, the Wildlife Trust has carried out a range of management activities to do this – including creating the western island from excavated material (late 1970’s), excavated a channel around the main islands to restrict access by people (late 1970s) and most relevant filled in a section of the main island to create further nesting space (1997)

During Summer 2017, and thanks to the Roseate Tern LIFE project, we were able to install 4 tern rafts. Although only used in a cursory way in the first year, we will be hoping for more interest from the terns in 2018. 

More significantly, in the early winter, the Wildlife Trust got to work on increasing the availability of nesting habitat on the main island. 

The main island is relatively small (0.4 ha) and includes a low-lying area of 0.05 ha i.e. c 12% of the island which is some 15-20 cm below the rest of the islands. This means, it is inundated for parts of the year and critically not available for nesting terns. Instead, loafing terns and a small number of feeding waders use it throughout the year. 

​To rectify this situation and make the area habitable for nesting tens, we proposed to import varying sized, clean small rock to raise the profile of the low-lying area. Taking material from the shingle ridge itself was definitely not on! The final landform would include small channels similar to elsewhere on the islands and a low-lying area of about ¼ of the existing one will remain. Attention was also paid to biosecurity and pollution control measures.
​
However, the tern colony does not occupy Cemlyn in isolation – the lagoon, shingle ridge are a SAC, and consideration needs to made in the management of the tern colony to not impact their key features. For the former, wide ranges of specialist brackish water invertebrates are present on or in the lagoon substrate. 

To cover the area (0.05 ha) and to raise it to the right level approximately 46 tons of material was imported via the gangway onto the island.
​
The opportunity provided by the gangway and transport was made good use of.  Sea beet on the island has increased considerably over the last decade and effectively occupies nesting space and provides cover for predators. We removed approximately 30% of bushes from some of the traditional common/Arctic tern areas on the east side of the island. This is in an attempt to favour these species nesting in this area. 

Through the summer of 2018, we will watching the use of the newly created areas by terns. We will also be keeping an eye on the presence of waders in the remaining low-lying areas and for any long-term impact on the lagoon.