Downturn in fortunes: Long Nanny terns face mounting pressures from climate change and disease - National Trust

A significant breeding site for some of the UK’s rarest seabirds including the Arctic tern, has seen the number of pairs returning to breed drop by nearly a third (30 per cent) this summer.

Reports from the National Trust, who look after this vitally important breeding site for the terns at Long Nanny near Beadnell in Northumberland indicate that the number of occupied Arctic tern nests has dropped by 313 compared to last year (724 occupied nests in 2025 compared to 1,037 in 2024).

This news comes just one month after a high spring tide washed away occupied Arctic tern and little tern nests at Long Nanny, despite rangers' best efforts to protect them from extreme weather conditions. It also comes just 10 months after the Arctic tern species was added to the UK Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) Red List, reflecting the significant population declines driven by multiple factors including climate change, overfishing and avian influenza.

James Porteus, Lead Ranger for the National Trust at Long Nanny said: “After several difficult years due to storms washing out nests and then bird flu, we have been saddened by the drop in Arctic tern numbers returning to Long Nanny this year to breed. We don’t know the reason for the decline but suspect it will be due to factors such as climate change, food availability and of course avian influenza. Arctic terns have been badly impacted by the disease at their breeding sites here in the UK in recent years, but we don’t know how the species has been affected by the disease outside of the nesting season. Little and Arctic terns are facing mounting pressures from rising seas and stronger storms due to climate change, and disease. Despite our best efforts, even the most carefully protected nests can be lost in a single tide. The changing fortunes of these remarkable coastal birds underscore just how vulnerable our seabird colonies are.”