Common Tern
Sterna hirundo

© Bob Ford/Nature Portfolio     Common Tern

Supremely graceful, but noisy, Common Terns are present in some numbers in Portland Harbour from May to September. Most of them will be from the Lodmoor colony, but some years they will breed on Chesil Beach or the breakwaters. Then in October they will all fly off south, to winter off the West African coast. At Lodmoor the RSPB have made artificial islands for them to nest on, with drainpipe shelters for the chicks to hide in.