Blog

27/07/2024

Winding Down

It looks like the season will be coming to a close here over the next few weeks. While we started the week with quite a few eggs left, we discovered over the last few days that most of them had been abandoned. We had two new chicks this week which myself and Nina reckon are the last of the season. Both are up at Pen 0 (up at the river). One was inside the pen and the other in the buffer zone, however, we observed both chicks being fed in the buffer zone so it is likely that they are now up and about and moving around the beach. We hope to see these final chicks survive to fledglings 🤞A few walkers were using this stretch of beach today so for anyone covering a shift over the weekend, if you could warn walkers of the few remaining chicks it would be much appreciated. Thanks everyone for all the effort this year 👏

Bronagh

20/07/2024

Busy Week

It has been a busy week here at Baltray. Hatching is slowing down with our total number of chicks at 165. There are still 25 eggs being incubated. Some of the team attended the launch of National Heritage week on Thursday afternoon at Beaulieu House where we got the opportunity to share information on our project. The event was launched by Minister Malcolm Noonan and showcased a range of Irish heritage projects. Despite the showers on Friday morning, a team from RTÉ visited the site to record a short segment about the colony for the evening news. The Kestrel has eased off hunting at the colony, with most fledglings now flying around with the rest of the terns on site.

Bronagh

06/07/2024

Settling down

Hi all, things seem to be slowing down a bit here with no new nests found for a few days now. Our total number of chicks is 159 and the egg count is 59. There were plenty of fledglings out on the beach today learning to fly and forage for themselves. However, the Kestrel in the area has realised this and has been actively hunting at our colony over the last week. To our knowledge four chicks have been lost as a result. A number of other young casualties have been found, presumed to be due to harsh winds and blowing sand. We must keep the spirits high and keep the numbers rising! Here's a photo of the Oystercatcher chick that got ringed this week 🥰

Bronagh

04/07/2024

Lucky Escape

We have up to three kestrels visiting the site regularly at the  moment, a few chicks have been taken; they are predating chicks to feed their own young, currently at nest.  Normally kestrels focus on small mammals, mainly rodents, but will take ground nesting chicks especially when breeding. We keep them away by running around waving hands and banging pots and pans, but the site is large so presence of volunteers is critical. This lucky chick was rescued by alert volunteer Maurice Conaghy: "One lucky chick, kestrel had it in the grass when I got to them , it tried to fly but got caught in the fencing and let the chick go , the chick picked itself up and ran back into the pen."

Currently the tally is 160 little tern chicks, so its starting to look like a record year.

28/06/2024

Ringing update

Here with the latest update.

We have 98 active nests and are up to 146 Chicks Today! Still have 82 Eggs to hatch and we are still finding new nests all week so that is nice to see! With lots of new chicks we are seeing fairly regular visits from the kestrel and sparrowhawk so must keep our eyes peeled 👀. We’ve also had Jan down ringing a good bit this season: 32 Adult Little Terns and 78 Chicks ringed so far.

Nina

26/06/2024

Casualty

A dead little tern adult was found at the entrance to the site, most likely predated by a peregrine based on extent of feather scatter. otherwise the site is doing wonderfully, probably headed for a record year with 102 nests, 94 chicks, and 124 eggs. 

Good numbers of hare and deer were also seen on the site by night wardens. The deer appear to be sikas or sika-red deer hybrids (upright curved antlers). They reportedly are using the Boyune river to commute from midlands, rather than animals from the Cooley mountains which are mostly escaped fallow..

22/06/2024

Eighty-three chicks

Things are going very well at the Baltray colony. We are now up to 83 chicks, so we have passed our total of 80 chicks last year! We are being quietly optimistic but hopefully everything will progress well with around 120 eggs yet to hatch. Myself, Nina and Dominic enjoyed a visit to the 5th class of Termonfeckin school this week. The kids then walked down to the site and got to view some nearby nests through the scopes. A great day was had by all, despite a few tired legs from the long beach walk!

Bronagh & Nina

18/06/2024

Recycling plastic

Very active day today. Since yesterday: 11 new Little Tern chicks, and a load more nests; bringing us to a total of 83 active nests, 160 Eggs and 38 chicks (5 of our nests already have the full 3 chick brood). 39 birds were ringed today thanks to Jan Rod (5 Adult Little Terns, 28 Little Tern Chicks, 3 Ringed Plover Chicks, 2 Juvenile Starlings and a Meadow Pipit).

Bronagh

12/06/2024

Ringing day

See the gallery for some photos from a few of our ringing days. In total nineteen adult Little Terns ringed, two chicks, a ringed plover and a Juvenile Skylark 👍 

ome Little terns from Portrane, Kilcoole and Cumbria birds on site this year so far.

Nina 

10/06/2024

First Chicks!

Hi all, more good news this week. Since Nina's last update we have marked 21 new nests, bringing the number of nests to 59 and a total of 145 eggs! Our resident Oystercatchers were still incubating today, with a chick due any day now. As for the terns, we are expecting the first chicks at the beginning of the coming week. There was another successful ringing session on Monday with Jan Rod who ringed 6 more Little Terns and 1 Ringed Plover. Discovery of 6 news nests down at the north end of the site meant an 8th pen was fenced off, thanks to Dominic and Billy! A very positive week indeed 😊

Bronagh

04/06/2024

Update

More nests and eggs update! We are up to 39 nests and 97 eggs! 🪺 22 of the nests have got a full clutch of 3 eggs, 14 nests have got 2 eggs and then 3 have the 1 egg.

Nina

27/05/2024

Going Strong

Hi all

Time for a little update,

Brónagh and I have been busy trying to find the first few nests this week (nest number 12 was marked today).

We have also been busy chasing off crows from the nesting area, 3 nests unfortunately have been lost most probably to the crows so we will all have to keep a keen eye on them. But the colony is still going strong with 9 nests and 15 eggs (2 of our nests have got a full 3 egg clutch and are beginning to incubate!) there is still plenty of signs of more nests on the way 🤞

21/05/2024

First Nest

A first nest was found in Pen 2 with two eggs. Plenty of other pairs making scrapes and generally setting up to breed.

20/05/2024

First Week Back

First week back with the Little Terns; getting back in the swing of things.

We have Ringed Plover nests and an Oystercatcher nest on-site (it seems to be a win for the terns as it’s seen chasing away the crows at the minute). There is a good bit of Little Tern activity: they are doing aerial displays, offering fish and bowing down etc so that is good to see, and some are snuggling into the sand and are scooping out their nest/scrapes with their feet.

I applied for a photo and film license from the NPWS earlier this year so here you go!

Nina😁

11/05/2024

Progress!

We are finishing the fencing at the moment, with about 50 little terns flying around the site so far, engaging in courtship, nest prospection and site selection.

All good work thanks everyone.

We have full night cover engaged 7 nights 10pm till 6am. Nina Rogerson and Brónagh Barnes are full time and they are doing their own rota to cover 7 days. We've still to work out the details. Sundays will still be critical volunteer days to allow 'leave'.

Welcome all of our new entrants to this quiet heaven. We will endeavour to pair new wardens with some of our more experienced members so it becomes familiar.

I recommend new members in particular to spend some time with our Wardens Nina and Brónagh to familiarise with the priorities of the project.

Happy wardening!

Dominic

06/05/2024

Welcome to the 2024 Little Tern Season at Baltray !

Most of the fencing is now complete and caravan is in place. Last Tuesday (the 30th April) we had 40 little terns flying around the site with regular visits since, as the birds select their nesting site an pair off.

Breffni

16/11/2023

Summary of 2023 season

A total of 125 Little Term nests were recorded over the 2023 breeding season, however due to disruption of nests throughout the season with predators and high tides, this number does not accurately capture birds using the beach or quantify the distinct nesting pairs. Flock counts combined with observations of roosting Little Terns on the shore line were averaged to be 124.24 +/- s.d. 27.36. At its highest, counts of Little Terns on the beach reached 300 (though as an outlier was not included in the statistics - this count was late in the season it wouldn’t have given an accurate depiction of this colony's size as many of them were visitors based on their colour ring). Lower numbers were counted following the destructive high tide on the 6^th of July, suggesting that some little terns in Baltray colony relocated to Portrane and Kilcoole to re-lay and so the overall numbers of Little Terns in Baltray’s Colony did not remain linear throughout the season and may lead to over counting if included in breeding pairs of other colonies. The highest estimated number of breeding pairs occurred during the week of the high predator disturbance: 60 nests were labelled although many nests were lost by 19^th June, 3 days later 16 more nests were located.  Assuming there was not enough time passed for those extra nests to be re-lays (10+ days recorded for Sooty Terns in C.J. Fearne,1975), there would have been a total of 76 nests on the beach that week.  With 76 breeding pairs we can say that there were at least 152 adult Little Terns at one point during the season using Baltray Beach as a nesting zone, however only 40 breeding pairs actually had nests that resulted in successfully fledged chicks this season.

Nina

16/08/2023

Thanks

Today, the final clear-up team of Tom, Martin and son Liam, Matt, Shannon and myself removed all the remaining posts, electric fences, signboards and various other bits and bobs from the beach and placed in store! 4 hours in hot sun! Great team as usual. THanks to all who had done their bit in the dismantling earlier in the last week or so. It's such a pleasure to be involved with so committed voluntary efforts in a brilliant project.I🛠️🌅⛱️⛈️⛅🦊🌌

I expect to be retiring our current over used Warden HQ caravan in the coming weeks and hope to purchase a fresh one for next season and beyond. Meanwhile there is work to be done in planning this year's post season gathering, final designs on new signage, reviewing this year's wardening and how we might improve things.

I'll post further to alert you all for input!

D ;-)

12/08/2023

Final Update 2023

My Final update everyone 😢 happy and sad emotions today but with the season now coming to a close I’m happy to announce the total chick count to be at 80 chicks 🐥. It was a harsh enough season for the Little Terns with difficult weather, tides and predators, but thanks to the day wardens, night wardens and dedicated group of volunteers together we've kept them up and flying so well done everyone, what a team! I've really enjoyed the experience and thank you everyone for being so welcoming and kind!

Nina

31/07/2023

Seventy-eight chicks and counting

This week’s update: up to 78 chicks and counting! 🐥 We are onto our final few chicks now and 8 eggs to go (we found some nests the end of last week that were quite hidden). 

In terms of Avian Flu: A few dead Common Terns have been found here no Little Terns yet, from their rings looks like they are from Rockabill.  Many Little Tern fledglings can be seen on the beach still but many have also at this stage moved on.

26/07/2023

Juvenile cuckoos

At least two juvenile cuckoos were spotted along the fencing near the second gate yesterday. They will probably hag around for a few days in the general area.

21/07/2023

Fifteen more chicks

Update: 15 more chicks since last week bringing us up to 72 chicks! 5 of those chicks are from eggs that we had found in the seaweed after high tide and placed in makeshift nests further back, and 2 are from a nest we moved back to protect from high tides so we are very happy with the success from our efforts on the 7th of July. Only 6 nests with 9 eggs to go now! 🪺. Here is a photo (taken through the telescope and under NPWS Licensing) of a chick keeping warm under its parent while still having a peak at the outside world.

Nina

14/07/2023

Twelve New Chicks

Hey all,

This weeks update: 12 new chicks this week. The estimated chick/fledging count is 57. This week, fledglings have been recorded out on the beach, observed flying and learning to feed for themselves. 18 fledglings were observed out on the beach (3 of which were ringed so not our fledglings). Twenty more eggs in nests (plus wildcard nests that were relocated still to be determined)

And keep eyes peeled for a Kestrel spotted multiple times this week. It hung around for the day today, on and off, catching prey in further dunes and soared above the pens three times. The terns are doing their best to agitate it.

Nina

PS: No sign of bird flu at our site yet but its decimating most other terns sites in Ireland, particularly Rockabill and Kilkoole.

11/07/2023

Wind and rain...and dogs

News from Nina from last Saturday: 

Hi all,

So to start off with some good news, we found a new nest with 2 eggs and also found 2 new chicks (that are a nice good distance from the tide 👍) today. In terms of what we lost to the tide and harsh weather early this morning: 24 nests (containing 47 eggs) are lost, However, 8 nests’ eggs were found in the seaweed and relocated up a bit from the tide and I did spot one or two of them sitting on the nest today so you never know🤞. Unfortunately 2 poor very young chicks didn’t survive the night/morning.  Remaining are 36 nests (15 of the nests have 25 eggs and the rest have chicks, estimating to still have 46 as we lost two and gained two, and the rest were plenty old enough to be up and running and were spotted getting fed and hiding in the grass). Here’s hoping for a lower or less damaging tide tonight.

On foot of this a huge effort was made to reset the fencing and this was achieved over Sunday/Monday. So we are getting back on track, though inclement weather forecast to continue.

That would be bad enough but we have renewed problems with dog walkers. Today a problem with a golden/reddish cocker spaniel whose owner refused to put the dog on a leash and ran hm up and down the beach in and out of the pens, including the very exposed northern pen. Luckily dog didn't kill anything but pure luck!

The dog owner should be aware that it is an offence to disturb the nesting area of any wild bird, but in particular annex ! species such as little terns. The county ranger has been notified.

06/07/2023

July Update

Hi all, Nina again back with a weekly update! We have more chicks and more nests. Up to 46 Little tern chicks are hatched now and 70 eggs still laid/incubating. New nests are still popping up with 15 new nests found since this time last week. Ten nests are located in front of the pens and one had a successful relocation slightly further back to protect it from high tides, and the little tern and ringed plover nests in Maurice's northern pen and still hanging on despite the odds. As i am currently still in the process of getting a license to take a photo of chicks an eggs on site, enjoy this illustration of them credit to my brother Euan Rogerson.

Nina

30/06/2023

100th Nest!

Hi all, New nests and more hatched chicks from the past week to report! We marked the 100th nest this week (we don’t have 100 nesting on the beach currently, but over 100 nest with eggs have been marked and logged on the beach this season so far). We are now up to 50 nests, 33 chicks and 61 eggs. Also some ringed plover and skylark chicks were spotted this week. Pen 2 is now our busiest with 11 little tern nests and 2 plover nests.

Nina

23/06/2023

Better....

Feeling more cheerful, and cautiously optimistic this week! Obviously still feeling the loss of many nests last week and the pens were feeling that bit quieter but we have found 8 new nests in the last 2 days, and the chicks have arrived right on time to liven things up! Current numbers are now up to 34 nests, 52 Eggs and 13 Chicks🐥 Now, with the chicks soon to be running around the beach we have made a sign,  here’s hoping people will read and follow it 🤞  - Nina and Brónagh