Endangered black tern nests en masse on Loenderveense Plas: “Already counted 49 terns”

But rest alone is not enough for this ‘red list species’. The Vogelwerkgroep Het Gooi has placed dozens of ‘breeding rafts’ on the lake. “After that it’s a matter of waiting: will they come or will they not come. And when the first one lands and they stay put, yes that is goosebumps”, says forester at Waternet Nico Bouman.

However, the rafts are not only popular with the black tern. The black-headed gull is becoming more and more common in the protected area, so it is important to pay attention now. “We see them more and more and they handle the rafts completely differently: they build them completely full. The tern is satisfied with the grass that we put in it,” says Rob van Veen of the bird working group.

Battle for raft

The binoculars are quickly grabbed when Rob notices that a gull has settled on a tern’s nest. There also seems to be a young tern in the nest. “I’ve never seen this,” Rob shouts several times. “If that gull starts to use the young tern as prey for its own young, we have to think about how we can prevent this.”

See below a photo of the gull on the nest of the black tern. The latter tries with all his might to chase the seagull away.

But after some hesitation, the black-headed gull decides to leave the tern’s nest alone. “That black tern is much smaller than that black-headed gull, so chasing it away was not easy,” said ecologist Vincent van der Spek, who also studied the spectacle. “But in the end, the gull didn’t look back at the chick, so I’m not worried about it for now.”

Drinking water

The protected area where the tern seems so happy is in the hands of Waternet. The seepage water that is extracted here provides about a third of all drinking water for Amsterdam. “And at the same time, this is European top nature,” says Van der Spek. “Those two things go together great here.”

And that is not only proven by the black tern that is now nesting en masse. During a special count with a drone, many more special nests were found, namely of the purple heron and the marsh harrier.

Please note that flying a drone in these areas is strictly prohibited. The photos below were taken under strict conditions and by professionals.

And so the Waterleidingplas is currently a bright spot in a somewhat dark time for bird lovers. The ‘grandnephew’ of the black tern, the sandwich tern, is currently dying en masse at a large breeding site on Texel due to the bird flu† “The black tern is naturally better at ‘social distancing’, so I’m less concerned here. But what is currently happening on Texel is a tragedy,” says ecologist Vincent van der Spek.