Now it's the terns turn

As well as a colony of Black Headed Gulls on our islands at the reserve, Common Terns are breeding. These are summer visitors and as such they arrive at the colony later than the gulls. Several pairs have attempted to breed with varying degrees of success. However, we decided to visit the island on Thursday evening to ring the six well grown tern chicks we could see from the hide. We ended up only ringing four chicks because two of them were so well developed they flew off as we got to the island. Good news for the terns but not so good for us. However, we were pleased with four as the first birds of our latest colour ringing scheme. This will last for up to five years and we look forward to sightings of 'our' Common Terns.