'Record-breaking' breeding season for Norfolk Little Terns

A "record-breaking" number of Little Terns have nested along the Norfolk coast in a successful summer breeding season.

For example, Winterton National Nature Reserve recorded up to 700 chicks this summer. Visitors and volunteers have been thanked for protecting nesting birds across the county.

Little Tern has had a strong summer in Norfolk (Matthew Barfield).

RSPB conservation officer Ian Robinson said although it is a "tough job offering round the clock protection", this year they have been rewarded. He added: "The spectacular sight of a thousand adult and young Little Terns on a Norfolk beach is something to behold."

In what the RSPB says has been the best breeding season since 1978, Holkham and Blakeney Point have also had bumper numbers of Little Terns nesting this year. The news comes as welcome relief in a summer dominated by bird flu both across the county and nationally, with the disease decimating the Sandwich Tern colony at Scolt Head Island.