30th May: Sea thrift in bloom

The beautiful pink flowers of sea thrift are now blooming on the saltmarsh next to the causeway as you drive onto Holy Island:

Sea thrift next to the causeway, looking across to the village

It is really important that you're careful not to drive off the causeway onto the saltmarsh or any other vegetation as you could damage the fragile plants and flowers. You can park at the Snook car park and walk across to the causeway to view the thrift more closely and take some stunning photographs.

23rd May: Ellingham First School visits the NNR

On Monday 19th May, the Reserve team held a fun day for all 63 children from Ellingham C of E Aided First School, who enjoyed learning about the wildlife of the NNR and wider island.

Some of the children from the school have kindly written some great thank-you letters and their things they enjoyed most during their visit:

"Dear Natural England Staff,
I loved making the lapwings and I loved seeing the swallows. It was fun seeing the grey seals but the quiz was very tricky. It was fun when we saw the lookout tower. It was great when we saw the swallows flying in the air.
From Elias, Ellingham C of E Aided First School"

"Dear Natural England,
Thank you for the trip it was awesome and it was fun seeing and making Lapwings, Terns, seal puppets and seeing the seals and last of all the quiz.
The lookout was great with the telescopes and binoculars and we could see the seals playing in the water. From the window on wild Lindisfarne we could see fish and tadpoles and birds.
From Will, Ellingham C of E Aided First School"

"Dear Andrew and the staff,

I REALLY enjoyed seeing the seals and making the cards, making the paper birds but the quiz was a bit tricky. The bit I liked best was seeing the seals bobbing up and down, they were really cute. I saw little fish swimming in the pond outside the big Window On Wild Lindisfarne, and I also think I saw a white bellied Brent goose. I also REALLY enjoyed making the porthole I liked the little foot prints on the floor of the WOWL area. Yours sincerely,
Teddy from Ellingham School"
-Photo included by Teddy

"Dear Natural England,
Thank you so much for letting us have a look at the seals and I really enjoyed making all the awesome cards and birds and the lookout. I think the seals are funny because all they do is sunbathe and swim. I loved all the birds. I think the quiz hard but I still liked the quiz.
From Louisa, Ellingham c of e Aided first school"

We all really enjoyed having the children visit the NNR and look forward to their next visit!

22nd May: Litle tern decoys repainted

Last year, Lowick and Holy Island First Schools did a great job of painting the little tern decoys that were placed on the North shore of Holy Island. The decoys were used to try to attract little terns to nest in areas identified as having great potential to become breeding grounds for these special birds.

Decoys in action last year

However after a few months of being outside in all weathers last year the decoys were looking a little tired, so the schoolchildren have repainted them ready for another season on the NNR.

Two spruced up little terns on the North shore this week

The Reserve team will continue to monitor these areas closely to detect interested birds and prevent disturbance. While out wardening, our team chat to visitors and inform them of how they can help to protect the sites and avoid disturbing the breeding birds.

Remember to be aware of ground nesting birds when you are walking on the NNR and shores nearby, and please observe notices and access restrictions. It is particularly important to keep dogs on a lead around breeding bird areas.

14th May: Northumberland Little Tern Recovery Project update

The EU Life Little Tern project in Northumberland is well underway. With shore birds all up the coast pairing up and making nests I thought this would be a great time for a project update. With news from another of our partners further South the first sightings of little terns came through. Exciting stuff as our very own birds were seen on the 13th of April – an extremely early sighting compared to previous years. With more and more sightings of this amazing sea bird coming through they are starting to look towards their nesting grounds. You may see them feeding along the coast in rock pools or out to sea and hear their call over head as you enjoy the beach. The RSPB website has a great page all about the little tern.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/l/littletern/

Photo by C. Redgate

 

Partners all across the project will be going through the same process. Waiting to see when and how many birds return with many erecting electric fences to help give the birds the best chance without disturbed from predators. Wardening schemes will be starting much like the National Trust here on the coast at Beadnell. Wardens spending 24hrs a day monitoring and protecting terns and shore birds. The national EU Life+ project itself involves 11 partner organisations and it is hoped that it will lay the foundations for the long-term recovery of the little tern in the UK by increasing numbers of breeding pairs and productivity, identifying long-term plans for conservation and increasing public awareness and support.

What an exciting time of year it is on the Northumberland Coast! Like my previous blog the emphasis here is on getting help from you the beach goers. Now the birds are trying to make claim to their own small slice of the Northumberland beach they need our full support. If you are a regular on the coast you may notice about this time of year little areas of the beach are enclosed using fencing. Well, these are prime shore bird areas which need our help to make them even more suitable. The fences do this by helping make sure unsuspecting walkers (and dogs) don’t accidentally tread on any nests or scare birds away. Again you can help by taking note of any signs on the beach, keeping dogs to heel or ideally on the lead and staying clear of our fenced areas. 

An example of one of the signs that are placed around the restricted shorebird areas

Below is a section of fencing from a previous blog post to show what they look like.

As before please send in any sightings and if you want to help out on the project then get in touch.

Mhairi

12th May: Bird Sounds - Lindisfarne Terns

As the new Northumberland Little Tern Recovery project is now well underway, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight the calls of each tern species you're likely to see/hear on Lindisfarne NNR as this is a good way to identify them.
As the aim of the project is to increase numbers of breeding Little Terns, we'd be grateful if you could report any sightings of this species to northumberlandlittleterns@gmail.com

Tern Sounds:

Little tern - the focus of the Northumberland Little Tern Recovery Project. These dainty terns are about the same size as a dunlin.
Please click the following link to hear the Little Tern's call:
Little tern call

Sandwich tern - probably the noisiest tern you're likely to hear around Lindisfarne NNR! They can be seen in large numbers at Goswick and regularly fishing along the North shore of Holy Island.
Please click the following link:
Sandwich tern call

Arctic tern - you may spot these distinctive terns with their bright red bill and legs fishing in the waters around Lindisfarne NNR.
Please click to listen to the Arctic tern calling at a breeding colony:
Arctic tern call

Common tern - very similar in looks to the Arctic tern but with a black tip to its bill.
Please click to listen to the Common tern calling in flight:
Common tern call

The British Trust for Ornithology have also produced two excellent videos focusing on tern ID, which can be found here:

Taking a look at terns 1: Common and Arctic terns
Taking a look at terns 2: Roseate, Sandwich and Little Terns

2nd May: Successful Beach Clean

The beach clean that took place this afternoon was very successful, with five enthusiastic litter pickers collecting 10 bags of rubbish and many more tyres, sheets of plastic, lobster creels and more.

 Three of the group hard at work collecting litter

There were some very interesting finds, including a garlic clove, a children's shovel, a pair of ladies tights, and a praying mantis toy!

Thanks to all the help from our keen volunteers. It is so important to carry out regular beach cleans and litter picks in order to prevent wildlife from getting caught up in items like netting, or trying to eat small pieces of plastic and subsequently starving.

We will be running more litter picks throughout the summer and are always looking for more assisstance with these, so if you would like to get involved in this vital part of conservation please keep checking this blog for details or call 01289 381470.

Help us keep our coastline clear of litter