The bird breeding season is well underway on Brownsea Island and with the lack of public, nesting birds have been taking advantage by nesting closer to paths than they would usually. The lack of visitor pressure is also having an effect on plants and trees. We would normally see a thriving campsite, busy reception and boats coming to and from the jetties and where the boardwalks would normally be well trodden by human feet, but now the bracken is growing up through the gaps in the boards. Sika deer are becoming ever more adventurous, adjusting their behaviour from hiding for most of the day and venturing out in the evenings, to being ever more brazen venturing onto Church field to graze during the day.
Arrival of the terns...
The terns on the lagoon have been busily getting ready for the breeding season, the sandwich terns started to arrive from 25th March and the common from the 16th April.
A few of the Sandwich terns have eggs and we are up to 180 nesting pairs so far with a few left to settle. We are expecting some of the first to hatch around the 22nd May. Common tern numbers are around 100 with all of them yet to settle. Black-headed gulls have chicks already and the volume levels have been turned up, almost to full volume now.