DAN ICETON: There we go I've just been pecked again so as
they come close you can really hear them it's that sort of
clicking clattering sound and then the screech as they bomb
down. They don't always peck but when they do, you do feel it.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: The Farne Islands in the North Sea off the
coast of Northumberland have a very special species of seabird
visiting from May to August each year. These seabirds have a
reputation for fiercely protecting their young, but it's
their ability to fly thousands of miles during their migration
that sets them apart.
I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth and for this episode,
Northumberland-based Ranger Dan Iceton joins a Farne Islands
Ranger, who despite being regularly dive-bombed by them,
is a big fan of these seabirds. Welcome to Wild Tales and the
Globetrotting Arctic Turns.
Arctic Terns come to the Farne Islands each summer to nest and
breed. These small seabirds have bright red beaks and feet, grey
and white feathers on their bodies and a cap of black
feathers on their head. With their lightweight frame, short
legs, forked tail and narrow angular wings, they're excellent
at gliding through the skies on a breeze.
In fact, they're famous for one of the longest migrations of any
bird, experiencing more daylight hours than any other animal on
the planet.
Every year they migrate from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic
Circle, racking up miles by meandering across oceans and
continents rather than flying directly north or south.
Dan's catching up with Ranger Tom Hendry in the Inner Farne
Information Centre to learn about the Arctic Terns, their
record-breaking journeys and their special technique for
seeing off intruders.
DAN ICETON: Hello Tom, you alright?
TOM HENDRY: Hi Dan, how's it going?
DAN ICETON: So how many Arctic Terns have we got on the island?
TOM HENDRY: Ah so we've about 500 pairs of Arctic Terns on the
Farne Islands approximately at the moment. There were more
previously, around a thousand pairs but they have suffered the
past couple of years as a result of bird flu. But there are still
some quite good numbers on the Inner Farne. They are everywhere
and make their presence heard and felt as well.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Arctic Terns have a bit of a reputation for
aggressively defending their nests and young.
TOM HENDRY: Where you're going past the visitor areas, the
Arctic Terns are there to dive-bomb you, peck you, poo on
you as well. But it's all from the best possible place though.
They're here essentially for one purpose only and that's to rear
young. They spend the winter all the way down in Antarctica.
DAN ICETON: They're coming a long way to come here to nest so
what's good about the Farne Islands for them?
TOM HENDRY: The Farne Islands offers an ideal habitat for
them. We've got great vegetation so we've got a nice mix of
grasses, a sandy shingly area as well. They'll typically arrive
end of April and the start of May, that's when we'll kind of
first see the eggs. They can lay up to three eggs in a nest. So
most often you'll get kind of...
Most nests will have one or two chicks in the end. Whatever
stage of their development at the moment they still rely on
the parents. One parent incubating the eggs or small
chicks to keep them warm. Once they're of a certain size both
parents will be busily just going back and forth a conveyor
belt of of chick provision.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: So the chicks take a lot of looking after, but
what do the parents bring for them to eat?
TOM HENDRY: The most common food that they like to eat this time
of year is the sand eels. On the Farne Islands, part of the
reason why they breed here, as well as the protection and the
habitat, It's just the seas around the Farne Islands are
just so plentiful.
DAN ICETON: So the chicks, you know, they grow they fledge
ready to leave the nest where they off to?
TOM HENDRY: They start a huge journey they will make the trek
down to Antarctica in a number of kind of steps.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: The long trip to Antarctica and back is
impressive. It's a journey of around 50 000 miles a year. This
means that over a lifetime some Arctic Terns are flying the same
distance as taking three trips to the moon.
TOM HENDRY: We had quite a famous ringed tern who was over
30 years old and I think it was calculated that that individual
would have flown over a million miles over the course of his
life, which is sort of staggering. We've also had some
researchers who've done some quite interesting stuff as well
by putting these geolocator tags on their legs.
Many birds would go the route what you might expect, you know
go down the coast of West Africa and then sort of sometimes into
the middle of the Indian Ocean and then down to Antarctica. But
they found one individual went into the Indian Ocean and then
it actually went down to New Zealand before then going down
to Antarctica.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Arctic Terns form strong bonds and often stay
with the same mate for many breeding seasons, reuniting
after their long migration in the same colony each year. When
the pairs get back together, there's some wooing. And a few
moves between the two.
TOM HENDRY: They won't have seen each other for the whole winter.
To sort of re-establish this bond, the male will bring fish
for the female. There'll also be a bit of a courtship display
where both birds will almost bow to each other. It's quite sweet.
DAN ICETON: What are some of the dangers towards that these birds
have to face?
TOM HENDRY: Yeah, so it's a very... very dynamic lifestyle
out here and lots of threats along the way to the adults and
the chicks. Many of the birds are at risk of predation from
great blackback gulls, herring gulls for the chicks in
particular. Disease is also a concern as well.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Avian influenza or bird flu is an
infectious disease that affects bird populations across the
world. In 2022, the UK experienced its largest outbreak
of bird flu in wild birds ever recorded. Putting many species
like Arctic Terns under pressure and having a devastating impact
on the Farne Islands.
TOM HENDRY: So 2022 and 2023 were quite bad. I mean, we lost
over 9000 birds over those two years, you know, many of which
were guillemots. But we also lost quite a lot of Arctic Terns
as well. This is the issue with having these quite dense
colonies. You know, they're really good for protecting each
other. But then, you know, with disease, if the birds are so
close together, it might sort of go through them.
So it's important for us to kind of mitigate as best we can and
then if there is signs of disease, it's kind of recording
that properly and removing the birds from the area if we can.
But last year, there wasn't much evidence of bird flu at all, you
know, very few deaths. And this year seems to be the same, which
is really good because there is evidence in other tern species
that. You know, that immunity can develop towards bird flu.
DAN ICETON: I think it'd be great to go out and have a look.
Show us round, let's see if we can spot some chicks on the
nest.
TOM HENDRY: Let's do it
DAN ICETON: See the terns dive-bombing.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Dan and Tom head outside the information
centre, and immediately come across some heads peeping out
from under the vegetation.
TOM HENDRY: We have some Arctic Tern chicks just to the right of
us here.
DAN ICETON: Oh yeah, I can just see one poking its head up
there. Fantastic.
TOM HENDRY: Yeah, I mean... If you didn't know they were tern
chicks, you probably wouldn't know by their appearance because
they look nothing like the adults really. These ones are
quite brown and sandy with kind of black spots. Shall we try and
see some bigger ones?
DAN ICETON: Yeah, let's go see.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: As they wander further across Inner Farne Dan
and Tom spot some more chicks with parents close by.
TOM HENDRY: So this guy is a different story really.
DAN ICETON: Oh wow
TOM HENDRY: You know so this one's looking more like an adult
you know so you've got you see the tips of the wing feathers
there they're they're almost fully developed you know they're
really kind of adult feathers but it still has that sort of
downy fluff that all the chicks have So eventually it'll lose
all the fluff and then it'll eventually start to stretch its
wings to practice flapping.
And then one day it'll just kind of go up literally a few feet
and that's it kind of, oh I can fly now So this one will be
probably more about kind of four weeks old so it's not too far
from fledging.
As you can see I mean it's got shorter bill and shorter wings
and not much of a tail But it's similar size to the adults now
so you know too big for the adult to sit on it but still
fully reliant on parents for food.
DAN ICETON: Yeah so we've got one clattering just over my
head. They do look quite vicious don't they, especially with that
sharp bill on them.
TOM HENDRY: Well they've got... It's almost like a bandit mask
over them which gives them that evil look but they're amazing.
DAN ICETON: It's the blood red beak as well though isn't it?
TOM HENDRY: Blood red beak yeah.
DAN ICETON: It's intimidating.
So as they come close you can really hear them. It's that sort
of clicking clattering sound and then the screech is they bomb
down. They don't always peck but when they do you do feel it.
We've walked past now and they've gone back to their nest.
They don't really follow you, do they? It's more once you get out
of the area of their nest they're okay.
TOM HENDRY: You'll get individuals who are more feisty
than others so they will follow you a bit further or peck you a
little bit harder and sometimes draw blood.
DAN ICETON: They're pretty good.
TOM HENDRY: I respect you a lot but quite painful.
DAN ICETON: I've just been pecked there. And again, they're
really quite feisty here aren't they?
TOM HENDRY: They are.
DAN ICETON: Really good.
TOM HENDRY: Good area.
DAN ICETON: Is there a tactic to not getting pecked?
TOM HENDRY: I think again just find someone taller than you and
sort of crouch behind them I think is the main tactic.
DAN ICETON: So that's good to know okay.
TOM HENDRY: Good for me anyway.
DAN ICETON: What a deterrent, it really does work and you can see
how it's so effective but what a privilege it is to be here and
sort of experience this.
TOM HENDRY: It's a privilege to work with these birds and to
help them along their way in their breeding cycle. And it's
great to have people and visitors to come on to enjoy it
as well, but also contribute to protecting them.
DAN ICETON: Brilliant, thank you very much.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: It's time for Dan to leave the island. But
before he heads off, he reflects on his day with the Arctic
Terns.
DAN ICETON: I've really enjoyed seeing the Arctic Tern colonies
here on the Farne's and learning more about these incredible
birds. While it's sad that the numbers have been depleted by
bird flu and the numbers were really down these last couple of
years. It's good that we've seen a good number of chicks and
there's sort of healthy population back on the Farne's.
The future is looking really positive for these
globetrotters.
ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Thanks for listening to this episode of
Wild Tales. If you liked it, why not give us a like or a follow?
And if you want to see the Farne Islands Arctic turns, head to
Instagram at wildtalesnt. We'll be back soon with another
episode in a couple of weeks. But if you can't wait that long,
why not check out our other nature podcast, Nature Fix. Or
if you like your history too, there's Back When. I'll see you
next time.