Tern Again?

The Arctic tern (the bird, with the longest annual migration) colony in Long Nanny, Northumberland has failed to fledge even a single chick this year (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-54069721). This is a site that has managed to generate a few hundred new birds per annum in earlier years. It has been suggested that this failure is due to a combination of bad weather hitting the foraging nesting birds and the Covid-19 pandemic, putting a stop to essential conservation efforts (that would include preventing predators and other sources of disturbance from entering the site) in the locality. One must never forget, however, that these birds rely on sand eels to feed themselves and their developing chicks. Sand eels are often taken in large quantities to make fertiliser for farming activities. Declining sand eel stocks have been shown to have powerful effects on breeding activities in a number of seabird species.