I went on a visit with Anthony McGeehan and Ronnie Doggart to see the arctic tern colony at Groomsport and find out what the National Trust (NT) aren't doing to help the terns. The Cockle Island tern colony has about 80+ nests but lacks an electric fence to deter predators and signs to warn people off. The NT have put a "raft" out to encourage the terns to nest but as you can see from the pictures it doesn't really do a lot. At a pinch it could hold 6 nests and it is easily accessible to any predator wanting a look at it. Fortunately the terns have no interest in it at all. They have not bred since 2022 and the sandwich terns upped and left last year and nested at Belfast RSPB. It appears that despite being an SSI and hosting a red listed bird species, the NT are not that interested in what happens there although they do talk a good talk they do not follow up with actions.
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| Cockle Island and "Tern raft" |
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| Known to locals as the salmon farm! |
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| No terns on it at all and easy access for predators |
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| Tern nesting site |
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| NT trail cams |
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| Arctic terns currently on eggs |
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| Nice red-breasted merganser (F) in the harbour |
If you have any links to the National Trust, Ards and North Down councillors or MLAs please bend their ear to try and get some action to protect the terns. The biggest help would be an electric fence, but warning signs on the harbour, a rope cordon on the island, and a few motion activated predator warning lights would also be a great help. Feel free to comment or email me if you think you can offer any help. We will hopefully have breeding success this year but all ideas are useful even though they might be filed away for 2027.
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