Staff at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Montrose Basin Visitor Centre and Wildlife Reserve are celebrating a bumper breeding year for terns.

Common terns return to the Montrose Basin reserve each May to make use of the ‘Maid of Sterna Stuff II’ – a floating raft designed to give the migrant seabirds a safer place to nest and breed each summer.

Over 40 breeding pairs of common terns nested on the raft this year. Scottish Wildlife Trust staff estimated there were over 100 chicks on the raft, 87 of them were ringed by volunteers.

Common terns are small seabirds that migrate north for the summer to breed. Most pairs lay a clutch of three eggs, which can take 3-4 weeks to hatch. The species is amber-listed in the UK due to recent population declines.

Joanna Peaker, visitor centre site manager at Montrose Basin, said: “This is the best year for terns since 2017, and it’s really encouraging that so many returned to breed on the raft.

“Last year the terns used the raft very late in the season, and in much smaller numbers. They didn’t nest on the raft at all during 2021 and 2022. We think their colonies were badly affected by bird flu, which has had a terrible impact on seabirds around the world.

“This year we saw the first few common terns on 2 May. Two days later there were nine on the raft, and the following day over 40 had arrived.

“They stay until August or September, so there’s still time for visitors to come and see them. We’re open seven days a week, from 10.30am until 5pm.

“The raft was custom-designed for the terns and placed on a part of the Basin where there’s a river channel. So although the tide goes in and out twice a day, the raft always stays afloat and protects the terns from ground predators like foxes or otters. It almost acts like a moat!

“The common terns are just one of the bird species that call Montrose Basin home, even if just for a season. Over 80,000 migratory birds make their way here each year and we have otters, harbour seals and grey seals all in residence.”

The common terns were ringed by the Tay Ringing Group. Data is shared with the British Trust for Ornithology so that populations can be monitored and tracked over time and distance, telling us more about their movements and survival.

For more information on Montrose Basin or directions to the reserve, click here.