Weighing no more than 55g – roughly the same as a tennis ball – they undergo an epic migration every year, flying more than 3,000 miles from West Africa to raise their chicks on our beaches, but numbers have plummeted by 18% since 2000. A survey of key sites revealed 1,077 adult birds raised 617 fledglings, with the Norfolk coast remaining a stronghold, with 260 chicks raised on sites like Winterton and Blakeney Point. Gronant Beach, near Prestatyn, North Wales, also had a successful season, with 202 young.
Little Terns lay one to three camouflaged eggs on the beach, often close to the sea, making them very vulnerable to tides, bad weather, and disturbance, both accidental and deliberate.
Colonies at Crimdon, near Hartlepool, and Kessingland in Suffolk, suffered acts of…