A Welcome Return
Thursday 19th April saw the return of the little terns to the Fleet, since the 19th we have had regular visits from little, common and sandwich terns. We have already had spectacular close up views of the terns from the boat and in the forthcoming weeks the Fleet will be alive with terns showing courtship behaviour, before settling down and making scrapes on the bank.
The little tern is a schedule 1 breeding bird. The smallest species of tern, this small sea bird travels from the south west coast of africa to the UK to nest. Chesil’s colony is the only colony on the whole of the south west coast and over recent years numbers have decreased due to poor breeding success.
Other regular visitors include little egret, meadow and rock pipit, skylark, increasing numbers of waders such as oyster catcher, dunlin, turnstone, ringed plover, curlew and many other spring migrants including, swallows, martins, wheatear and linnet.