Terns‘ habitats restoration in Nemuno kilpos Regional Park
31-05-2019
The degraded breeding habitats in two NATURA 2000 sites designated for protection of Common and Little Terns in Nemuno Kilpos Regional Park - Nemunas between Prienai and Lengveniškes and Nemunas between Pelėšiškes and Balbieriškis - will be restored within the project and the favourable conditions of the habitats will be constantly kept.
Open sandy islands are breeding habitats for the Common and Little terns. These islands are also important for other protected bird species that are closely related to the open islands’ habitats, not only during the breeding and migration periods. Sandy islands in Nemunas river are unstable ecosystems, as they are formed as river silt, which might be washed away by flood.
In case more stable high islands are formed in the river, they start to overgrow with woody vegetation, which does not suit as breeding habitat for terns and other bird species during breeding and migration periods. Terns choose sandy beaches of the islands; however, the nests are often washed away due to the water level fluctuation in Nemunas river. This is one of the reasons, why populations of Little and Common terns in Lithuania were declining.
During the project the woody vegetation and part of the surface layer will be removed and covered with the geotextile and gravel on the Little and Common terns’ habitats, which now are overgrown with shrubs and not suitable for breeding anymore. In parallel to the practical conservation activities, project partners will monitor changes of the population. According to the data, before overgrowing of the islands, 30-40 pairs of Little Tern and 90-120 pairs of Common Tern were breeding there. This year monitoring results showed that only single pairs breed on the islands, other birds prefer sandy, but temporary and thus unstable islands in Nemunas river.
Common Tern. Photo by Renatas Jakaitis
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Little Tern. Photo by Renatas Jakaitis
