Brownsea Island Again

Sandwich Tern - Sterna sandvicensis

Looking through our catalogue of images recently we realised it was three years ago we last ventured to Brownsea for the terns. Spurred on by a successful visit last Autumn for the Red Squirrels, we devised a plan to go across in early July. As plans go it wasn't very complex: catch the first boat from Poole Quay at 10am, spend all day in the Macdonald Hide and catch the last boat back to Poole.

A similar plan had worked well for the Reds and this one was equally as rewarding, far better than the experience in 2013. This time the wire netting around the islands appeared higher and that, along with constantly changing light, was challenging. But there was more and varied birding action this time along with some behaviour we hadn't witnessed before.

There were a large number of Sandwich Terns, Mediterranean Gulls, Black Headed Gulls, Shelduck and Canada Geese showing close to the hide and all had chicks or juveniles with them. We had seen the courting and feeding rituals of the Sandwich Terns last time and were keen to get some more shots of that, but it was the Mediterranean Gull behaviour that took us by surprise.

We soon noticed they had a couple of chicks on the island close to the left side of the hide, but much of the time they were out of sight behind some foliage. After about an hour, one of the adults returned with a live Common Tern chick in its beak and proceeded to kill it in our full view. Once it was dead, the gull ate it whole and struggled to force it down. A short while later, the Med regurgitated it and fed it to its own chick. During the day, we witnessed this on six separate occasions, but on one of those the adult had to digest it again as it hadn't reached a state where the chick could eat it.

Six hours in the hide soon passed and it was time to head for the last ferry back to Poole Quay at 5pm. We do like the journey from Poole as you get to return around the far side of the island. The fare is naturally more than using the boat from Sandbanks, which is far quicker. However, car parking at Sandbanks is more expensive and finding an on-street space needs a large slice of luck. Still probably the best way if travelling from Bournemouth and the East, but from West of Poole like us, probably less attractive.