The season at the Beacon Ponds Little Tern colony started on the 1st May and it's been a successful start to the season here.
26 June 2023
In the first couple of weeks of May we assembled the electric fence and the south hut. Later in the month, numbers of Little Terns were gradually building while pairs of Oystercatchers and Ringed Plovers began to lay eggs. Unfortunately the first clutches of these were laid in places hard to manage and Foxes predated them during the night. Although since then they have re-laid inside the electric fence compound and now there are 8+ nests of Ringed Plover, 6 of Oystercatcher (both having some now hatched broods), and also two nests each of Avocet and Black-headed Gull.
On the 1st June, the first sitting Little Terns were noted with 13 seen, and these quickly increased each day. On the 15th, a colony walk through was completed to get a better idea of how many nests and eggs there are. A total of 45 were located of 100 eggs. Since then on the 21st, 50 were seen sitting from the viewpoint on Long Bank. That makes it the best year for the number of nests since 2006.
To view the colony, please only do so from the flood bank between Kilnsea Wetlands and Beacon Ponds as this will provide the best vantage point of the colony and will not result in any disturbance.
