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Birds flock to Bedfont Lakes

Posted by Nina Rossi on Aug 12, 08 02:45 PM in

Common-Tern-chick-2-(2).jpg Rangers at Bedfont Lakes Park are delighted with the booming bird population as the numbers of common terns recorded its highest level for four years.

This summer the common tern population has improved for the first time in four years with 16 pairs hatching out 39 chicks.

Common terns, also known as sea swallows, are small silvery-grey and white seabirds with long tails. Countryside Rangers have been encouraging them onto the site by providing floating rafts for them, which replicate their natural habitat and provide a safe place for the birds to lay their eggs.

Claire Griffiths, General Manager for John Laing, who now manage the parks, said: "The increase of breeding common terns at Bedfont Lakes is a good example of how people can make a difference to the environment and bring wildlife into the borough".

The adults will be due to leave Bedfont any day now to migrate south to winter in places such as South Africa and Namibia 6,000 miles away, the youngsters will follow in mid August. They return in mid to late April.

Before their migration volunteers for the Runnymede Ringing Group boated out and ringed 34 of the chicks with a small, numbered metal leg ring, which will allow the Natural History Museum to track their movements and migration patterns.

The borough's only breeding colony of Black-headed Gulls, who live at Bedfont Lakes, had 6 pairs raising 19 young this summer, another record high.

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