Deeside gull and tern colony decimated by bird flu

Hundreds of gulls and terns at a colony in Deeside have been wiped out by bird flu.

One of Wales's largest colonies of Black-headed Gull and Common Tern is found beside the River Dee near Shotton, where the birds nest on two large concrete platforms. Unfortunately the colony has been hit hard by bird flu this summer, with local birders fearing it'll take years for numbers to bounce back.

Since early spring, more than 40% of Shotton's Common Terns have died, said Pete Coffey from Merseyside Ringing Group (MRG). An estimated 200 Black-headed Gulls have also perished at the site, which hosted more than 400 pairs in 2021. So far not a single chick has survived.

Some 40% of Common Terns at the Shotton colony have died due to bird flu (Robin Gossage).

Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Coffey said: "This year we had over 1,000 Black-headed Gulls nesting by the end of April. We then started to notice a few dead gulls and this escalated rapidly. In the end we finished with more than 200 dead adults. It's had a devastating impact on chicks – lots have died and so far we've not had a single chick that has fledged."

Soon, MRG's volunteers began noticing the same pattern repeating with Shotton's Common Terns. "We feared the worst by this stage, and this is exactly what we got – we've lost 40% of our adult population so far," said Mr Coffey.

"We know the ages of many of the dead birds from our bird ringing data. This showed us that many of the casualties we’'e picked up, had many years of breeding ahead of them, so we have lost that cohort of the breeding population."

Shotton's Common Terns used to nest on the adjacent saltmarsh but breeding seasons often failed due to tidal flooding. In 1970, an artificial island was created by the steelworks which, in its first year, attracted 13 pairs. By 2021, and with a second raft in place, more than 20,000 tern chicks had hatched at the site.