Rare residents flock to Watamu

Rare sea birds are nesting just off-shore from Medina Palms for the first time in nearly a decade!

For the first time in roughly 10 years Roseate Terns are nesting in Watamu, Kenya, on Turtle Rock which is just off-shore from Medina Palms. Roseate Terns are a species of seabird that normally spend much of their life out at sea and only come to land in order to breed. In Watamu they normally breed on Whale Island every other year - though two years ago bred on the Darakasi rocks north of Watamu.

Roseate Terns are one of the few seabirds that breed in Kenya and we are really privileged to have our 'own colony' in Watamu. They are a beautifully graceful bird and we normally have up to 1,500 pairs on Whale Island. For some reason they are not breeding there this year and instead a small number have laid on Turtle Rock.

Colin Jackson, Conservation and Research Director at A Rocha Kenya’s Mwamba Field Study Centre in Watamu reported recently:

“Terns lay normally just one egg though c.10% will lay two and very few three or more. It is a major energy cost to the terns to incubate an egg and raise chicks and as such they are very vulnerable to disturbance - particularly if it happens frequently. This is therefore a request that you do not land and also discourage anyone else from landing on the rocks around the base of Turtle Rock which can easily cause the birds to flush off from their eggs. Furthermore, once chicks start to hatch, if they are disturbed they can easily try and jump 'to safety' off the rock - which means certain death for them. We at A Rocha Kenya will be surveying the colony every fortnight to track the progress and success of the breeding event. This is, of course a full on disturbance, but we make sure we keep it brief and get off there within a short time. I was on the rock briefly on Wednesday with one colleague and we counted 312 nests - all with eggs and none with chicks though I am expecting them to start hatching very soon. Once the chicks have hatched and are gaining in size, we will also do some ringing of some of the chicks. This can be very useful in studying the site fidelity and movements of the terns - I in fact saw two ringed birds on Wednesday, and one of our A Rocha Kenya researchers was surveying the colony in Kisite and had one with rings as well. There is no-one else who has been ringing Roseate Terns in East Africa, so this must be a bird that hatched on Whale Island in previous years that we ringed and that is now breeding on Kisite.

If anyone finds terns nesting anywhere else other than on Turtle Rock this year, please let me know as we are keen to know where the balance of the 1,000-1,200 pairs are breeding.”

For more information email pr@medinapalms.com or visit www.medinapalms.com.

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Medina Palms
Watamu, Kenya
www.medinapalms.com
pr@medinapalms.com
www.fb.com/MedinaPalms
@Medina_Kenya

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