Petition Update No. 15: Tuesday, 15 June 2021.

It was good to be back at the river ferry landing at North Shields today, checking on the nesting kittiwakes. Earlier in the year it seemed we would lose them altogether here due to the deterrent netting installed last December, but the kittiwakes are very clever. Around the base of the netting they have built six well-constructed nests with a further eleven in the guttering round the corner. In addition there are three nests on a neighbouring building. The bizzare (and perhaps welcome) result is that we have more North Shields Kittiwake nests this year than there has been at any time since 1997. For the six nests along the netting edge we hope any nestlings will be able to fledge later in the summer without entanglement or entrapment issues. We shall keep our eyes open.

As a whole on the River Tyne, this is proving a bumper kittiwake nesting season with more apparently occupied nests than ever before. The first hatched eggshell was found on 31 May and we have observed quite a few small chicks over the past fortnight at different river locations.

We hope to view two riverside locations, up to 2.5 km from the ferry landing, in September. One of them may offer potential for building a substantial kittiwake nesting structure – this is uncertain at this stage.

Thank you for all your support,

North Shields Kittiwake Society

(Photo: 15 June 2021, North Shields kittiwake nests along edging of deterrent netting)