The keen and caring eyes of three rangers will be trained on one of the UK’s rarest seabirds at one of Norfolk's most isolated spots for the next six months.
Three National Trust rangers have moved into an old lifeboat house on Blakeney Point and will live there until October, helping to ward off predators to help threatened little terns.
Among them is Duncan Halpin, one of the trust's rangers for the Norfolk coast and Broads, who has just started his third season at the lifeboat house.
Mr Halpin said: “The first tern nests are expected from late April, beginning with Sandwich terns, and then from mid-May onwards little terns will arrive.
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“Little terns are one of the UK’s rarest seabirds and are afforded the utmost protection from disturbance.
“The UK has around 1,300 pairs of little terns, and the Point can host up to 200 pairs, although this varies from year to year.
“With such a low population concentrated only on a handful of sites around the country, protecting these is paramount to ensure their survival.”
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Assisted by around 30 volunteers, the trio will also count nests and fledglings, and speak to visitors to limit disturbance to the ground-nesting birds.
Terns have been breeding at Blakeney Point since the 1800s, with 2021 being a particularly successful year as the team counted 3,678 pairs.
But the population of little terns has dropped by 40pc since the 1980s, according to the National Trust.
Blakeney Point is also an internationally important nesting site for common and Sandwich terns.
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The conservation charity said as many as 25pc of the UK’s population of Sandwich terns and 16pc of the little terns have sought to breed at the point in recent years.
Mr Halpin urged visitors to follow signage and always watch their step as birds do not obey fence lines.
“Walking down at the water’s edge is usually the safest thing to ensure as little disturbance as possible,” he said.
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