Reflections on 2019

Photo by Paul Morrison

It feels as it was just last month when I was writing similar thank you letter in December 2018. Another year has passed.
 
Those of us fortunate to be directly involved in the conservation of some of the best tern colonies in Europe, lived through dramas and successes of their colonies or even individual pairs and birds. Second "pure" pair of roseate terns at the Skerries, one pair at Larne Lough and the first mixed pair on Isle of May in 60 or so years certainly received a lot of love and protection. Their success depends on the determination of wardens who go out when it would be easier to stay in a shelter. 
 
If we talk about vigilance, the Coquet team had to show a lot of it this year with an otter roaming the island during the breeding season. As if the rat incursion in 2018 was not enough… These guys deal with whatever Nature throughs at them and ask for more (with a smile). Another record of 122 pairs and 1.29 productivity – well done. This is the third project's site which faces the otter issue after Cemlyn Bay and Larne Lough. There, we need to build fences and thanks to the RSPB Ecology team – they are pretty good. This is now a reality for these sites and we need to stay on top of it. 
 
Meantime, the source colony at Rockabill and Lady's Island Lake took a small 6% deep this year. Perhaps it is a result of the lower productivity in the last few years on the Rock, despite BirdWatch Ireland and National Parks and Wildlife Service pumping near or above 1 chick per pair into the metapopulation most of the years. It will be interesting to see how the trend will continue in the next 3-5 years. One is for sure, these colonies have world-class monitoring. If we have smaller clutches, B-chicks don't grow as well as in recent years or sandeels are coming smaller and less frequently, we will know it. If survival on wintering grounds is lower – we will know it. Do you want it by age class – no problem. 
 
We wouldn't move anywhere without the support of scientists who, let's face it - are pretty cool, so I will need to name some of them. Following the publication of the "demography" paper, we carried out two tracking studies in the last two years. One led by Martin Perrow and his team at ECON focused on visual tracking of roseate terns from Rockabill revealing the extent of distribution utilisation and many facts from foraging ecology at sea. Check out the September issue of the British Birds for more details. The second tracking project used geolocators to study migration patterns and wintering areas. Chris Redfern leads on a paper due next year – and, no – they don't go to Brazil. We have also sent an overdue manuscript on the GPS/ visual tracking of Arctic terns at the Skerries in collaboration with the BTO and ECON. I would like to thank Mark Bolton from the RSPB's ConSci team for his support in all these projects. 
 
It is tough out there for terns. Coastal squeeze and flooding, more frequent storms, predators, human pressure and abundance and quality of food declining in some regions. We need to take any opportunity to create new sites and manage the existing ones up to the best possible standards. We have a lot to learn from each other and it was great to see many of you in Bangor at the Irish Sea Tern Network Meeting – hopefully, it will be a source of inspiration and an incubator of good ideas and connections.
 
Next year, we are organising the North Atlantic Roseate Tern Webinar to connect practitioners on both sides of the puddle. The meeting will take place online on 24-25 February and everybody is welcomed to join in. Please send me an email if you need more details. 
 
Meantime, we need to wrap up the project next year. I am looking forward to working with many of you on updating the EU Action Plan and developing exit strategies for the colonies. We will also facilitate wrapping up all our collective knowledge into the best practice guidance for tern management and monitoring. 
 
Thank you for another great year. 

Merry Christmas and Cheers.
Daniel