In spite of the poor weather there has been some good news on the rare breeding birds front with two pairs of Ospreys nesting in Wales. Interestingly, both males were from the re-introduction scheme at Rutland Water (250 miles to the east). That means (if I remember rightly) the birds were hatched in Scotland, released in England and nested in Wales. One of the females had previously fledged from a nest on the Black Isle. Only one chick was raised this year (one nest was destroyed by high winds) but the signs are good that the species might recolonise Wales as it has done much of Scotland.
News from the Roseate Terns on Coquet Island in Northumberland is not quite so good, even though this years 73 pairs was the highest since the early 1970s . Poor weather and a shortage of sand eels conspired to reduce the number of chicks fledged from 80 in 2003 to 63. Even then, that figure would have been much lower had all the successful pairs not used the special "nestboxes" provided for them. The island's Arctic and Common Terns have also had a disappointing breeding season.