Tern Verification Surveys for Marine Sites

Tender description

Defra procuring on behalf of Natural England. There are five species of tern which breed regularly in England, all of which are colonial ground-nesters. In order of abundance they are: Sandwich tern Sterna sandvicensis, common tern S. hirundo, Arctic tern S. paradisaea, little tern Sternula albifrons and roseate tern Sterna dougallii (Mitchell et al. 2004). All five species of tern are listed on Annex 1 of the EU Birds Directives requiring special protection. The objectives of this project are to: 1). Identify foraging areas for terns originating from the designated SPAs 2) Validate proposed limits to areas identified currently as potential marine SPAs 3) Identify any existing datasets associated with modelled areas and source breeding sites. 4) Produce a report summarising the results of the project.