In the north east corner of the lake is a new tern raft ready to put out when enough terns arrive to breed, at the moment only one or two Common Terns have been seen. We expect mid-May will be when there are enough terns present to put the raft out. If it goes out too early the Black-headed Gulls will take it over and the terns will end up on the island at risk of flooding.
We had two rafts but one has reached the end of it’s useful life and the other is stranded in the reeds on the north shore and is on the bank between the edge of the lake and the lake, so would be very difficult to get back onto the lake. This raft also looks like it would need some major repairs before it could be used.
So to have a raft for the terns to use this summer we decided to buy a raft from Green Future Building Ltd who have supplied rafts to a number of RSPB and other nature reserves.