June 10, 2022 – Martin Tayler's bird blog & nature photos

The RSPB says that “Coquet Island, situated off the Northumberland coast, is a vibrant seabird sanctuary, which is home to the UK’s only roseate tern breeding colony. It is also an important site for nesting puffins and common, Sandwich and Arctic terns.”

On our last full day in Northumberland we had a walk along the beach in the morning at Warkworth from where we could see Coquet Island in one direction and Alnmouth, where we have been staying this week, in the other direction. In the afternoon we took the hour long boat trip from Amble harbour around Coquet Island and enjoyed seeing puffins, guillemots, razorbills and various terns, including the rare roseate tern.

The view from Amble harbour with Warkworth Castle in the background

You are not allowed to land on the island but we enjoyed this short trip which gave me my last photographic opportunity of the holiday.

You can just make out a roseate tern on the box in the centre of the image and one flying to its left.

Slideshow of today’s photos:

The tern colony of little terns and Arctic terns at Long Nanny on the Northumberland coast are guarded 24/7 by rangers of the National Trust each summer.

“They have had mixed results in recent years and fared particularly badly during COVID lockdown when the rangers were unable to be there to protect them. The Arctic tern, which has the longest migration of any bird in the world, started breeding at Long Nanny in 1980 and has returned every year from Antarctica to nest. The little tern is one of the UK’s smallest seabirds, weighing roughly the same as a tennis ball. They feed mostly on sand eels and young herring and tend to lay between one and three camouflaged eggs on the beach. The little tern has been in serious decline since the 1980s, with fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs now left in the UK.” (National Trust website)

Rangers counting little terns on the beach

In the last couple of years they have been joined by a summering American Black Tern – Britain’s first record of an adult in summer plumage.

We reached Long Nanny by walking behind the dunes at Newton Links. The display of spring flowers was beautiful and we enjoyed good views of sky larks, linnets, stonechats, reed buntings and even avocets and oystercatchers on the river.