Nest cam cover up: RSPB staff stress out rare birds at troubled Northumbria reserve (UPDATED)

Call the cops! Possible case of reckless disturbance as delayed spring clean terrifies nesting roseate terns in latest Coquet Island cock-up

Startled terns fill the air as meddling RSPB staff approach

A few years ago, there was a rare piece of good news about the RSPB. The roseate tern, a seabird on the verge of extinction in the 19th century, was booming.

The bird charity installed new nest boxes on Coquet Island off the picturesque Northumberland coast and the extra privacy the terns were getting seemed to make a difference. Even the BBC was reporting the breakthrough, although it was probably the work of a low-paid intern copy/pasting a random RSPB press release.

The population continued to flourish until the bird flu outbreak in 2022. Since then, it’s declined steadily and the disease has got nothing to do with it. Instead, it looks like shoddy management of the reserve may be partly to blame for the latest in a series of embarassments for massively overpaid CEO Beccy Speight.

This year’s spring cleaning of the nest boxes and surrounding terraces - usually done before the birds return to the island - was delayed until June, according to the time stamp in the video below. In it, several staff are seen approaching the nest boxes, with terns flapping around above their heads.

After standing there a minute or so, one of them puts a plastic bag over the web camera. I can’t say for certain, but that suggests to me that the RSPB workers didn’t want anyone to see them breaking the rules.

On the plus side, it’s good to see RSPB staff don’t just throw away their plastic bags after a single use.

Surely just turning the camera off would have attracted less attention

It may seem innocent to some, but it’s essential to maintain a distance as the birds have been known to pull their eggs and chicks out of the nest boxes if they flee at the first signs of disturbance. Everyone working at the reserve knows this.

Leaving the terraces and nest boxes so late to clean has not been allowed to happen before, according to the source of the video.

RSPB staff are governed by the same rules about disturbance as normal people and a cabin was built near the terraces so wardens can count and monitor the birds without stressing them out.

Here’s a close-up of the guy covering up the camera. Is that a Prada bucket hat?

However, the birds are clearly stressed as the staff wait by the fenced-off nesting area, flying around them to try to see what they’re up to. I employ a similar tactic when I spot RSPB staff loitering around the town centre in case they’re soliciting donations.

In this case they’re waiting for their colleague to place a bag over the RSPB’s live camera, which allows anyone with the internet to see what’s happening - except what they’re about to do.

The source says the staff - six of them - stood in the enclosure counting the sandwich and roseate terns for about 15 minutes. The disturbance could be described as reckless and avoidable and in no way benefitted the rare birds.

Ironically, in 2012, two brothers from Amble were prosecuted after the RSPB reported them for landing on the island and disturbing the roseate tern colony.

Part of the evidence RSPB presented in court was a security camera video showing one of the men walking across the beach near the terns, causing them to leave their nests, rather like they are doing in the video above. This evidence was enough to prove the disturbance aspect of the case.

It seems unlikely the RSPB will rat on its own employees, but who knows? (UPDATE August 6th, 2024: several new RSPB staff arrived at Coquet Island at the weekend and disabled the webcam. It’s now showing reruns of footage from 2023).

Déjà view

This is just the latest Coquet Island cock-up caused by incompetent RSPB wardens. Earlier this year there was leaked video of a great skua getting its head caved in by a warden’s boot, followed by sewage problems stemming from a broken system.