Country diary: terns return to their nesting sites along the shoreline

Rye, East Sussex: They're known as 'sea swallows' in some parts. A fitting name for our most graceful and beautiful sea birds"Terns have got everything stacked against them. They don't have good PR. They suffer from looking too much like gulls." I'm walking with Barry Yates, manager of Rye Harbour nature reserve, towards the distant boom of the sea. It's a perfect April morning, bright with the high calls of terns, as warm as summer. We near the beach, and as if summoned by Yates's words, seven little terns, Sternula albifrons, flash across in front of us, arrowing through the air like shards of light. They're starling-sized, fragile creatures that spend winter in west Africa, flying up to 10,000km each year to come and nest on British coasts. Rye Bay, which curves from the cliffs at Fairlight round to the lowering fortress of Dungeness power station, has just had its special protection area status extended to include the seabirds' nesting sites along this strange and mutable stretch of shoreline. Continue reading...