Local Lynx No.151 August/September 2023

Behind the scenes, thanks go out to Milly Cardoe for coordinating
the evening together with invaluable support
from Gill Kay, Rob & Sally Metcalfe, together with other
members of the PCC and to Martin Cardoe for running an
interval refreshment table with very able and capable
support from Gill’s grand-daughter Edie Curtis. A fabulous
total of just over £1,200 was raised on the night for church
funds.
ART EXHIBITION
Local artist Sally Temple will be exhibiting her
wonderful oil paintings at Morston Village Hall between
21st - 28th August. Her art will showcase a collection of sea
and landscapes of our beautiful North Norfolk coastline and
will be on display daily from 10am-5pm. You can also find
limited edition prints and greeting cards for sale too. Sally is
a North Norfolk based artist and her oil paintings capture
both the emotion of the day as well as the incredible
powerful skies of Norfolk, the county of her birth.
BLAKENEY NATIONAL
NATURE RESERVE
Thomas Lloyd, Assistant Ranger with the National
Trust, writes from the lifeboat house on Blakeney Point:
Tern breeding season is upon us, and
here on the Point, the little tern colony
at “the Gap” has been taking up most
of our time and attention, which is
most certainly a good thing.
Our new live camera, which
streams footage directly to the
Lifeboat House, has greatly enhanced
our ability to monitor the fortunes of the tern colonies, as
well as any potential threats to them. This is great because it
means we can keep an eye on the birds without ruffling any
feathers.
The little terns, which have arrived here from the
warmer climes of the west African coast, are still doing
well, with a high count of at least 80 apparently occupied
nests and 61 chicks so far. Using our live camera, it is now
quite easy to watch the chicks running about and waving
their wings. Some of them are getting quite bold, wandering
far from their nests and shelters and dashing back quickly
when food arrives. In the first 10-14 days, these chicks can
quadruple their weight, so I think it’s fair to say some of
them are also looking a bit porky.
I’m particularly happy that this colony is doing well. A
second little tern colony, further east along the Point at the
Watch House, has not done so well this year, possibly
owing to the unwanted attentions of a pair of immature
kestrels. Although I should note that last year the Watch
House colony thrived, while the Gap colony struggled. It
just goes to show that you never can tell how these things
will play out.
In previous years we have had several thousand
sandwich terns breeding on the Point, but this year it was
not to be. The lion’s share of the 280 sarnies that visited this
year showed no interest in settling down despite our best
efforts to encourage them to do so (which included placing
imitation black-headed gulls on the shingle, as the two
species co-exist well).
Little terns are amber listed on the list of UK Birds of
Conservation Concern and so monitoring their numbers,
survival and productivity is vitally important. Ringing the
birds plays a key role in this and on the first day of July, the
Iceni Bird Monitoring Group supported us to ring dozens of
little tern chicks under relevant licences.
The recent spell of warm weather is also a nice change
of pace. It feels like summer has finally arrived. It does,
however, come with its own challenges, as nicer weather
means more visitors. For this reason, we’ve spent a lot of
our time doing “Gap Watch”, making sure that one of us is
there to watch the beach, keep an eye on the colony, and
make sure that nobody passes our signs and disturbs the
birds at this crucial period of their lives.
SAXLINGHAM
Contact: John Pridham 01328 831851
jcwpridham@gmail.com
SAXLINGHAM BAT MITIGATION
Saxlingham Church supports the second largest
maternity roost of natterer’s bats that have been recorded in
Norfolk (peak count of 172). In 2020, works started at the
church to mitigate the impact of the bats by containing them
into a purpose-built bat loft over the north transept. Bat
boxes were also installed on the south side of the chancel
and on two trees in the church warden’s garden (next to the
church).
Measures to exclude the bats from the main body of the
church progressed gradually over the course of two
summers (2020 and 2021) to allow the bats to get used to
their new roosting area.
In April 2022, the access into the church from the bat
loft and the remaining exit from the church were sealed so
theoretically the bats could only access the loft. This
appeared to have worked well as initially the bats remained
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