SOME NOTES ON THE ANIMAL LIFE OF 



BLAKENEY POINT. 



By WILLIAM ROWAN. 



Figure 



Blakeney Point needs no further description after 

 Mr. Grew's article in the January issue of this 

 Journal. One might repeat again, however, that 

 " the Point " is the extremity of a shingle spit, some 

 eight miles in length. It 

 is separated from the main- 

 land by the " Blakeney 

 Channel," and is a sail, at 

 high tide, of over a mile 

 from Morston. 



The birds being the most 

 noticeable feature of the 

 animal life, we are descri- 

 bing them first. As might 

 be expected, few of the 

 species found in the sum- 

 mer are found in the winter, 

 while in the autumn and 

 spring many rare migratory 

 birds pay a fleeting visit. 



Should you visit the Point in summer, you would 

 notice that as you approach it birds rapidly get 

 more numerous. Thev all appear to be of one kind 

 — the common tern (see 

 Figure 133). 



If you are an ornitholo- 

 gist, however, you will soon 

 notice that mingled with 

 these is a considerable 

 sprinkling of the lesser 

 tern. They are fishing all 

 around, and time after time 

 you see a bird dive into 

 the water, rise with a little 

 fish in its beak, and dis- 

 appear over the dunes. 

 They all seem to go in 

 the same direction, and 

 even when the shoal of frv. 

 on which they are feeding, 

 has gone out with the tide 

 you notice stragglers 

 making their way over 

 interest 



- ? 



Figure 133. Tl 



the 



If your 

 you also 



dunes, 

 has been sufficiently aroused, 

 take the same road on landing. As you climb 

 up the side of the dunes all is quiet. You may 

 put up a dotterel with her little chicks, or bolt 

 a rabbit, but that is all. But as you reach the crest, 

 and catch a first glimpse of a long shingly beach, 

 with the open sea beyond, a cloud of birds rises in 

 the air. The noise is terrific, and as vou climb 

 down the other side to get a nearer look, and walk 

 underneath the great whirling mass, one bird after 



another with an earsplitting shriek makes a desper- 

 ate swoop at your head. It is merely show, how- 

 ever, and you need fear no injury. 



And so vou have made the acquaintance of the 

 noisiest and most important 

 inhabitants of the Point. 

 Their nests are strewn all 

 over the shingle on the 

 seaward side of the dunes. 

 If your visit be in July, 

 you will see many voung 

 already running about. 

 They almost invariably 

 crouch when you approach, 

 and are often hard to sec. 

 Apart from their size, 

 their black chin distin- 

 guishes them at once from 

 the young of the lesser tern 

 (see Figure 132). The 

 eggs vary enormously in size, ground colour and 

 markings. Fggs at the two extremes of the scale 

 are often found in the same clutch. About the use 



of material for nest-build- 

 ing there seems to be no 

 definite law. As a rule, 

 materials are used when 

 they are handy, and only 

 when they are. For in- 

 stance, of all the nests 

 examined last summer on 

 the drift line, in only one 

 case had the birds de- 

 posited their eggs without 

 •collecting material on 

 which to lay them. In 

 one case the " nest " was 

 eighteen inches across. On 

 the open shingle one must 

 be constantly on the qui 

 vive to avoid stepping on 

 to the eggs. 

 In the centre of the colony vou will find nothing 

 but the eggs and young of the common tern. The 

 birds resent the intrusion of any stranger in a practical 

 way. Even the rabbits have to keep clear of those 

 dunes that the terns occupy. On the outskirts of 

 the colony you will, however, find the lesser tern. 

 The nests of this bird are not crowded together like 

 those of the former, and you will only find them on 

 the Point in one kind of shingle, composed of verv 

 small stones and sand. This is in the main found 

 immediately above and below the highest tide limit. 



Common Tern. 



132 



