Roseate Terns at Coquet Island : 1st July 2014

Roseate Terns at Coquet Island : 1st July 2014

On the first day of July we drove over to the Northumberland coast where we were staying for a few days at the Warkworth House Hotel in Warkworth, just north of Amble. We were taking a few days away but the main reason for choosing the area was to go to the RSPB reserve at Coquet Island to see if we could see any Roseate Terns. Coquet Island is the only remaining British breeding colony of Roseate Terns. It is not possible to land on the island but we booked a boat trip from the harbour at Amble where Puffin Cruises use a retired Lifeboat to take people on round the island trips. As these are highly dependent upon the tides being right, the trips are sometimes at odd hours. Ours was booked for 4pm and we had high hopes for the trip.

At Amble harbour (not to be confused with the marina) we had time to watch the Eiders drifting around in the harbour and in the estuary and to pick out Sandwich and Common Terns fishing over the estuary. Swallows dashed in and out of the harbour.

Whent the boat arrived we found out that it is limited to twelve passengers at a time, so fully loaded we headed out for the short sail out into the open water. As we hit open water the boat started to ride a swell a bit disconcertingly but soon settled down to a fairly gentle level. As we neared the island we started to see Puffins and more Terns but it was the Roseate Terns we had come to see.

The tide wasn’t very high that day so we could not get as close to the island as we would have liked but we got as near as we could anyway. After a while the skipper started to talk to us but we were a little surprised that there was next to no commentary for the people new to the island. Of course, most people had come for the Roseate Terns and eventually the skipper started to point out where they were.

A mixed group of Terns was nesting in, on and around a sort of “dry stone wall” ; as it was described to us. By the time we managed to locate what he was talking about we had already lost about ten minutes. I don’t know if we had particularly bad eyesight or particularly poor binoculars (unlikely at the cost) but we found it near impossible to pick out the Roseate Terns from the Sandwich or Common Terns and try as we might we didn’t get an unambiguous view of a single one. The fact that each “cell”; in the wall was numbered for the scientists to keep track of what was happening with the colony mean that the skipper was able to direct us to specific sites and we did see birds on those particular boxes. Were they Roseate Terns ? Well, he said so and the only other option was to take a few photos to see if that could help in identifying any of the birds.

I only had a 200mm lens with a 1.4 teleconvertor on. On an ASPC camera this was only equivalent to about 400mm and at that distance it was not going to be too detailed. However I did what I could. In fact it would have taken a telescope to see the birds clearly and we had not brought one. I doubt if it would have been much use of we had because the swell, though not great, would have meant constant refocusing of a scope and the risks of falling over on the deck of the boat which, even when stopped, was moving up and down and rotating at the same time.

So, all in all a little disappointing and we did not really feel as if we had really seen the bird we had come to see.The skipper came round the passengers at the end of the trip and was asking if people had seen what they wanted to see. Two photographers next to me said that they had but when it came to my turn I said that I was a bit disappointed that we had been so far away from the colony and that it was really too far away to see with binoculars easily. He agreed and blamed the tide partly and then he said that there hadn’t seemed to be that many Roseate Terns there on this trip – just a few. The only possible chance I had for a decent ID  was if we could locate a surefire Roseate Tern on any of the photos I took. When I got back home, I loaded them onto my computer and scanned them all. Would I find a tick in there ?

Well, as it happens the resolution of the camera (I had recently got a Nikon D7100 to add to my D300) gave me a better resolution than I was expecting and, sure enough, when I looked closely at the “boxes”; the skipper had been referring to there were indeed birds with solid black caps (therefore not juveniles which have variable coloured bills) and black bills with no sign of yellow on them but with red at the base of the bill. Additionally they certainly seemed to be whiter on the wing and be longer legged than the other Terns with quite long legs. Is this enough ? Well, on balance, I think so but we were here for another couple of days and whilst it wasn’t going to be possible to get a place on another boat trip, there were local sites where I had read it might be possible to see them “loafing” or bathing in the fresh water lagoons that occur at various points on the coast. That would need to wait until tomorrow so we returned to our hotel for dinner.

Bird Sightings : Amble and Coquet Island