Terns get a little help from friends

THERE’S good news on the bird front; little terns seem to have bred successfully this summer.

Not much bigger than a starling, this is the smallest of our five tern species. It’s also one of Ireland’s rarest and most vulnerable seabirds. A survey carried out by BirdWatch Ireland suggested that we had about 500 adult birds in 1995.

Sometimes called ‘sea swallows’, terns resemble delicate little gulls with black skull-caps. The plumage is pale grey above and white underneath. You can tell the little tern from its cousins by its smaller size and yellow bill. Terns spend the winter in tropical waters, coming to Ireland in summer only to nest. The season has just ended; little tern families, and some lone birds, are beginning their journey to the coast of Africa. The adults will be back here in April or May, but this year’s youngsters won’t return until the following year.