Last week we carried out our third visit to Whale Island this year to 
monitor the breeding colony of terns. The peak for laying has now passed 
for the Roseates and Sootys and there were the first hatchlings present 
in the colony. We ringed 17 pulli all together but there were more which 
we didn't ring for want of not disturbing the colony by staying too long.

The most surprising thing was the presence of at least 60 Lesser Noddy 
flying around the island, perching on the bushes on the leeward side and 
fishing low to the water to the north of the island. These are the first 
I've seen there after having had Brown Noddy for many years now, 
sometimes in large numbers - though this year we have only seen up to a 
maximum of c.10 birds.

Sooty Terns are down in number with just about 25 adults present, 
possibly representing about the same number of nests though probably less...

A total of c. 1,400 Roseate Tern nests were counted at the last visit 
which was probably close to the peak of egg-laying.

I'd just started another atlas card... so we've got Lesser Noddy on the 
full protocol card list...

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-------------------------
Colin Jackson
A Rocha Kenya

Cell:
+254 (0)722 842366
       
http://www.arocha.org
http://www.assets-kenya.org
http://kenyabirdmap.adu.org.za