Five years ago Ron Bryant and a team of helpers built the rafts which can be seen on the water at Lea Farm GP, with the purpose of providing somewhere for Common Terns to breed during the summer. Whilst this has been partially successful, there has been a tendency for Black-headed Gulls to populate the rafts before the Terns arrive and get themselves established in sufficient numbers to repel the gulls.
Over the past week or so the latest plan to keep the gulls off the raft has taken shape and on Tuesday 5th April the work was completed by Ron and Alan Rymer. Wire mesh panels have been positioned over the rafts and netting has been added to each end to (hopefully) stop the gulls encroaching. These defenses will then need to be removed at just the right time to allow the Common Terns to settle in, probably in the middle of May. This has taken a lot of hard work from Ron & Alan, so let’s hope it’s successful and that we get a good breeding colony of Common Terns this year.
Ron & Alan at work (click for a larger image)
