{"id":2199663,"date":"2026-10-15T05:19:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2199663"},"modified":"2026-10-15T05:19:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:19:45","slug":"seaton-carew-little-tern-colony-has-worst-breeding-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2199663","title":{"rendered":"Seaton Carew little tern colony has worst breeding season"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/5498\/live\/7d69b6b0-c7c9-11f1-9e10-4dcbd31d4273.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"SteveSteve Lindsay<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Little terns first came to Seaton Carew in 2019<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A little tern colony has experienced its toughest breeding season since establishing themselves at a site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Since 2019 the seabirds have travelled about 3,000 miles (4,828km) from West Africa to Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But this year the colony’s 83 nesting pairs produced just 17 fledglings, compared to 67 in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Tees Valley Wildlife Trust said flooding and damage to the colony’s perimeter fence contributed to difficult conditions for the birds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The protective fencing around the nesting ground was washed away in high tides earlier this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lead warden Derek Wood said a late arrival of their inshore food supply as well as predation also contributed to the birds’ tough season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In June, it was reported numbers were down 50%, which the team attributed to dogs being inside the exclusion zone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"SteveSteve Lindsay<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Tees Valley Wildlife Trust is looking at how to make the 2027 breeding season more successful<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“The season has been a difficult one for the dedicated wardens and volunteers who work tirelessly to protect the colony,” Wood said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But the team is hopeful the colony can bounce back when they return from Africa in spring, with plans to improve the site and further protect the birds under way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Little Terns are currently classed as amber on the UK list of conservation concern.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow BBC Tees on <\/i>X,<\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>Nextdoor<\/i> and <\/i>Instagram<\/i> and listen to <\/i>Radio Tees on BBC Sounds<\/i>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cjy56e4v6exzo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/5498\/live\/7d69b6b0-c7c9-11f1-9e10-4dcbd31d4273.jpg”] Steve Lindsay Little terns first came to Seaton Carew in 2019 A little tern colony has experienced its toughest breeding season since establishing themselves at a site. Since 2019 the seabirds have travelled about 3,000 miles (4,828km) from West Africa to Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool. But this year the colony’s 83 nesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2199663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2199663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2199663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2199663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2199663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}