Doing a good tern: Rappa helps protect important coastal breeding sites.

Just off the north Norfolk coast sits a 7km stretch of sand and shingle that is home to some of our most treasured birdlife. Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve, around 10 miles east of Hunstanton, is an internationally important area for breeding Sandwich Terns and Little Terns. The site is managed by Natural England and responsibility for the tern project sits with Reserve Manager, Gavin Devaney. We caught up with him to find out more…

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Tell us a more about Scolt Head Island?

The habitat includes large areas of inter-tidal mud and sand, saltmarsh, shingle spits and sand dunes. It’s orientated east to west and is separated from the mainland by a tidal channel. Longshore drift is causing the island to extend – it’s an excellent place to see the formation of dune systems. The island is owned jointly by the National Trust and Norfolk Wildlife Trust and has been managed under lease by Natural England since 1954.

How did this project come about?

There has been a warden (or watcher as it was known initially) on the island since 1924. This role has evolved from monitoring to actively protecting the breeding birds. Various forms of fencing have been used over the years with varying success until we reached the effective and robust Rappa system which we use now. During the breeding season we use three electric fences to enclose ideal nesting areas, along with predator control to protect the terns and Black-Headed and Mediterranean Gulls. It begins at the end of March when the gulls return to the island, they are the precursor to the arrival of the terns. All these birds are colonial nesters, building nests in very close proximity. The warden returns in April to identify suitable places to put up fences that encompass as much potential nesting area as possible that won’t be washed away by high tides.

Why is it important to protect these birds in this area?

This site is an internationally important area for breeding Sandwich Terns – it’s home to 11 per cent of the breeding northwestern European population. It’s also important for Little Terns, Black-Headed Gulls and increasingly Ringed Plovers as their numbers in the UK are declining sharply.

What are the birds under threat from?

Mostly from disturbance – these areas are very popular with people walking, kayaking, paddle boarding etc, causing the birds to move to more isolated areas. Foxes are a natural predator and dogs can be an issue when let off the lead as they may damage eggs and kill chicks. People also trample nests inadvertently without fencing to protect them.

What type of fencing do you need?

We put up eight-line electric fences which vary in size year to year. Last year, we had fences approximately 250m, 400m and 550m in circumference.

On each fence we use Rappa’s steel wire on 16 hand reels, wooden post screw-in insulators and corner insulators. Four 4-line hand reel posts start and end the fence, with quite a few wooden posts some with added support for the corners, a couple of earth posts and lots of equine style plastic intermediate posts. All powered with solar energisers.

Why Rappa?

With the harsh saltwater sand blown environment, we can get a couple of years out of Rappa wire, unlike their competitors’ wire which goes rusty after a few months. The reels are robust and the reel post system works very well.

Having the reels preloaded with 600m of wire is excellent as it reduces joins – the fact that we can send the empty reels back to be restocked is also very helpful. In addition, Rappa’s customer service is excellent – they are very helpful and always on hand to offer advice.

Need some advice? If you’re considering setting up protective electric fencing for ground nesting birds, do give our team a call on 01264 810665 or leave us a message.

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