Green sea turtle nests could beat record highs on the Space Coast this season. Here’s why. – via Herp Digest

By Adelaidee Chen  and Lisa Maria Garza

Orlando Sentinel, 6/21/19

The number of green turtle nests on the Atlantic coast have been on the upswing, surpassing the loggerhead turtle. Scientists are thrilled by this development.

During this time of year, sea turtles emerge from the ocean to lay eggs on the sand at night on Florida’s beaches.

The state accounts for 90 percent of the nation’s loggerhead nests, but another species also listed as threatened, the green turtle, has blown past the loggerhead on the Space Coast and is expected to post another record number of nests this year.

“So, this season is particularly exciting because this is the 'up’ year for green turtle nests,” said Ashley Lord, interpretative park ranger who leads turtle tours at Canaveral National Seashore.

Since Canaveral began protecting turtle nests from animal predators with metal screens in 1984, the female hatchlings that survived are now of reproductive age, returning to the beaches where they were hatched. There is also no light pollution and no housing development along 24 miles of beach.

During the last reproduction year for green turtles in 2017, the species surpassed loggerhead nests at Canaveral National Seashore. There were 7,736 green turtle nests to 4,556 loggerhead nests even though many of the green turtle nests later in the season were wiped out by Hurricane Irma.

Green turtles reproduce every other year. The nest screening program started in 1984, and the hatchlings that survived at higher rates would have returned to the same beaches 25-30 years later. Leatherback turtles also nest at Canaveral but result in fewer than 35 nests a year.

Female green turtles reproduce every other year and so far point-in-time counts for 2019 are higher compared to the same week in 2017 for Canaveral National Seashore as well as the nearby Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

Turtle nests face obstacles in addition to hurricanes.

Last year, 1,000 nests were wiped out at Canaveral National Seashore due to predators including raccoons and feral hogs, said Kristen Kneifl, chief of resource management. So far this season, the raccoons got into about 250 nests. Canaveral has taken steps to eradicate the problem raccoons.

To protect turtles from prey, volunteers and a team of four biological technicians cover nests with 4-by-4-foot metal wire screens with holes large enough for hatchlings to crawl out of as they emerge into the world. The screens are anchored into the sand with pieces of bent rebar.

“Our numbers are getting more than our staff can handle on every given day,” Kneifl said. “They’ve got to place the screen. They’ve got to pound the rebar. And with over 100 nests a day, it’s too much.”

Volunteer Patty Lillie of Winter Park spent many years alongside staffers, locating nests at Canaveral National Seashore, riding in an all-terrain vehicle under the moonlight.

“It’s a workout — the most I’ve ever done is 28 [nests] in one night and I was toast," she said.

These days, she guides small groups at night so they can see loggerheads lay eggs.

“I love doing that part, too,” Lillie said of the tours, “because the more people experience something with an animal, the more they’re going to care about that animal.”

Visitors aren’t allowed to view green turtles laying eggs along Florida’s shorelines because it is not a permitted activity by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. But scientists see them.

“To have a day when there are more green turtles nesting than loggerheads is very surprising because they were doing poorly for so long,” said Jane Provancha, an ecologist who has studied Florida’s sea turtles extensively.

But as the climate gets warmer, there is concern there won’t be enough male sea turtles to sustain long-term population growth. The warmer the sand temperature, the more likely the hatchling will be a female.

It’s a subject Provancha researched in the late 1980s with the late Nicholas Mrosovsky. They discovered that loggerhead hatchlings from 1986-1990 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base were more than 90 percent female. Green turtles develop similarly to loggerheads, she said. Their differences can be found in migratory patterns and diet, among other factors.

“We believe there are more females to start off in the ocean when animals are released from their nest," she said, but experts still don’t know a lot about the gender ratio in the adult stage because the males tend to stay in the water while the females show up on the beach.

In Australia, she said, studies have estimated the gender ratio of turtles in the water is two or three females to one male.

“We could assume the same” for the Atlantic population, she said.

Warmer sand temperatures can also speed up when the eggs will hatch. They also can cause sea turtles to lay their eggs further north where it might be cooler, although green turtles will nest within five to 10 miles of where they were born. Loggerheads seem to nest within a 40-mile range.

Atlantic green turtles were listed as endangered only as recently as 2016, when they were downgraded to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Loggerheads in this area also are listed as threatened.

The idea that there would be this many green turtles today couldn’t have been predicted 15, 20 or 30 years ago, Provancha said.

Study: Nesting Turtles Prefer Dark Beaches – via Herp Digest

by Kathleen Onorevole, 6/13/18 Coastal Review Online, North Carolina

SHACKLEFORD BANKS – The little rover left tire tracks in the sand as it rumbled across the beach on the moonless summer night. Anna Windle followed behind, keeping an eye on the rover while shifting her backpack full of field gear.

It wasn’t a typical evening on Shackleford Banks, where wild horses are more likely to roam the beach than robots. As Windle scanned the shoreline though, she wasn’t looking for horses.

“Anna came to the lab with interest in doing sea turtle work,” said David Johnston, associate professor of the practice of marine conservation and ecology at Duke University. “It seemed like the perfect opportunity to think about how you would use a terrestrial drone to be able to study an environmental issue, such as sea turtle nesting.”

Windle, a master’s student at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, was at Shackleford leading a study on sea turtle nesting and artificial light. Her results indicate that nest density is higher on darker beaches – useful information for North Carolina towns trying to promote sea turtle conservation.

“I wanted to figure out how to quantify the light pollution on our beaches and see how the different levels of light are impacting nesting activity,” Windle explained. “I did determine that there were significantly different nesting densities in different areas of the beaches from different light levels.”

Windle is a member of Johnston’s Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing, or MaRRS, lab, which is at the forefront of using automated technology to explore ecological questions. She is the first to collect high-resolution light measurements from a sea turtle’s perspective.

“Anna’s work highlights the threat of nighttime artificial light that reaches beaches during sea turtle nesting and hatching seasons,” said Matthew Godfrey, sea turtle biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

“Anna really correlated a lot of actual nesting data to areas with lower light,” said Trace Cooper, mayor of Atlantic Beach. Cooper explained that he had considered light in terms of “what happens when the turtles hatch, and not really when they’re nesting, and (thinks) that we need to shift some of our policies to reflect that.”

Sea turtles that nest on North Carolina beaches include loggerheads, green turtles, leatherbacks and, rarely, Kemp’s ridley. These species are threatened or endangered, increasing the conservation imperative.

“Sea turtles face many threats, such as habitat loss and entanglement with marine debris,” said Windle. Compared with other challenges though, light pollution is tractable. “It’s a threat, but it’s a manageable threat, because you can turn lights off.”

There are alternatives to turning lights off altogether. Shields can be placed on fixtures to direct light down, rather than out, and low-lying pathway lighting can be used to illuminate beach entrances.

Residents and tourists can play an active role by pulling down window shades. They can turn off oceanfront lights during nesting season, shield them, or add a timer or motion detector.

“All sandy oceanic beaches in North Carolina are used by sea turtles to reproduce,” Godfrey explained. “People visiting our beach can help sea turtles by keeping out of roped-off areas where sea turtle eggs are incubating, and by ensuring that all visible lights in their homes or condos are blocked from reaching the beach from May through November 15, which corresponds to the sea turtle nesting and hatchings season.”

By adopting simple measures, towns and residents can help attract nesting females and increase hatchling survival.

Guiding the Hatchlings

Before Windle’s study, it had been well established that artificial light was a concern for sea turtle hatchlings. Hatchlings use the reflection of the moon and stars on the ocean to orient themselves towards the water. This behavior can prove problematic on well-lit shorelines, where hatchlings might mistake a floodlight for the moon.

“Sea turtles, they don’t have a chance. A small light affects them,” said Michele Lamping, volunteer coordinator of the Atlantic Beach Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring and Protection Project, which is part of the North Carolina Sea Turtle Project. She described a local house with ample outdoor lighting and no window shades. “It’s bright enough I could probably read a book out there.”

The Atlantic Beach Sea Turtle Project aims to increase hatchling survival despite light pollution. Lamping schedules about 60 volunteers to walk segments of the beach every morning during nesting season. If the volunteers spot a nest, they log it on a global sea turtle monitoring website and build a fence around the nest to protect it. Volunteers check on the nests daily, staying on guard as late as 2 a.m. when they suspect a nest might hatch soon.

When the nests begin to boil – a term referring to the appearance of the sand when turtles hatch in unison – the volunteers ensure that the hatchlings reach the ocean. They extend the fencing to the water and stand outside it to redirect errant turtles.

Lamping explained that without the volunteers’ efforts, most of the hatchlings on Atlantic Beach would crawl toward land and die. “So, we’re pretty adamant about trying to find the nests and make sure we don’t miss anything,” she said.

Robots and Turtles

Windle was already interested in sea turtles when she joined the MaRRS lab.

“When Anna started talking about light as an issue for Atlantic sea turtles, as we were talking through that, it became obvious that that would be a really cool mission for our little rover,” recalled Johnston.

The rover is an unmanned autonomous vehicle, a type of drone. “We actually deconstructed an aerial drone, took the autopilot – which is like the autonomous part of the drone – put it on this rover, (and) hooked it up,” Windle said. “And then essentially you just use the same software that you would with a flying drone and just put in waypoints where you want the rover to travel.”

Roughly the size of a nesting female sea turtle, the rover trundles across the beach on large wheels. If it looks like an escapee from Toys R Us, there’s good reason. Doctoral student Everette Newton created the rover from a remote-control car, originally complete with flame decals. Newton and other MaRRS lab members engineered the rover to be compatible with 3D-printed attachments for a range of research needs.

Windle attached two light sensors to the rover, one facing the dunes and one facing forward. She selected moonless summer nights to conduct fieldwork at Atlantic Beach, Fort Macon and Shackleford Banks. The three sites were chosen to represent bright-to-dark conditions, respectively.

On site, the rover scooted along its programmed path, collecting light readings about every 200 feet for 6 to 8 miles. The team followed behind to ensure that the rover didn’t detour into the surf.

“We’re able to measure light very accurately and very consistently across a beach,” Johnston said. He explained that since the rover collects readings so frequently, it can capture small-scale variability like shadows cast by dunes. “And so, this system is able to move along and collect that data from essentially the level of a sea turtle approaching the beach and crawling out onto the beach.”

Back in the lab, Windle plotted the light measurements on a map. “I really wanted to make it visual,” she said. “I wanted people to look at a map and be like, ‘Oh, that’s where it’s problematic.’”

The three sites fell out as expected from bright to dark, but since Windle had collected high-resolution light readings, the maps revealed hotspots of light pollution along the coastlines.

Next, Windle used a mathematical equation to determine that there was a relationship between higher light readings and the distribution of sea turtle nests. In other words, darker spots corresponded to more nests.

Those results have prompted wildlife managers to rethink the relationship between turtles and light to focus on the nesting females.

“If it was darker, would we get more females who want to come there and nest?” Lamping asked. “We could potentially be missing out on nest opportunities because some turtles are deterred by the lights there.”

Shifting Policies

“Anna’s extraordinary research is just a starting point for using marine robotics and remote sensing for sea turtle conservation efforts,” Newton said in an email response. “The potential for drones is expanding daily … new platforms, new sensors, and new applications.”

“I would love for other beaches to use this type of technology to quickly and efficiently map out their problematic lights, because it just takes one night of doing this type of fieldwork and you get really highly accurate data,” Windle said.

After Windle shared her results with the Atlantic Beach Town Council, Mayor Cooper reported that the town has started considering new ordinances.

“We’ve looked at a lot of the other light ordinances in other towns to try to pull together what we could put in place for new development and redevelopment,” Cooper said. “The idea of our new ordinances is, to not necessarily make things less bright or less safe for people, but to structure the kind of fixtures that folks are using so that it focuses the light where it needs to be and doesn’t flood over in a way that would impact turtle nesting.”

Atlantic Beach supports the sea turtle volunteers and works with them to encourage residents to turn off lights when a nest is identified. “I think improving our lighting ordinances is the next step to make the beach even more turtle-friendly,” Cooper said.

With darker beaches in the works, the future for nesting sea turtles is looking bright.

Increase in Turtle “Rescues” Prompts CDFW to Ask Public to Leave Turtles Alone- California - Mostly They Are Picking Them Up On Their Way to Nest - via Herp Digest

Wednesday, 13 May 2015 01:29 Lake County News reports

  

More than a few kind-hearted Californians are unnecessarily “rescuing” western pond turtles this spring, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is imploring to the public to leave them alone.

Turtles normally travel away from water during a portion of their life cycle, and a solo turtle is not necessarily a lost or distressed turtle.

Spring is nesting season, so many turtles are leaving their aquatic habitat and traveling upland to lay eggs.

Wildlife rehabilitation centers and animal shelters report that a surprising number of people have been bringing healthy western pond turtles – California’s only native freshwater turtle species – to their facilities, thinking there is something wrong with them because they’re not in a pond.

The common name “pond turtle” doesn’t mean they never leave ponds. In fact, this species more frequently lives in rivers, streams, lakes, and permanent and temporary wetlands.

It requires terrestrial habitats not only to nest, but also to wait out extended hot, dry periods or overwinter in a state of dormancy throughout many parts of California.

While most western pond turtles nest somewhat near water, they have been documented traveling long distances (more than 500 yards) to upland habitat to lay eggs and sometimes even farther to overwinter.

With water becoming more scarce as the drought persists, more turtles are moving upland earlier in the season to estivate (summer dormancy).

People may encounter turtles during these travels and think they are lost or sick, since they are quite some distance from water.

CDFW receives many contacts from well-meaning people who report that they have found and collected what they believe to be a sick turtle, when in reality the turtle was traveling to upland habitat as part of its natural activities.

Western pond turtles are designated as a “species of special concern” in California, “critical” in Oregon, and “endangered” in Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in April that the species may warrant protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The turtles are known to inhabit parts of Lake County, according to wildlife officials.

“Western pond turtles face a number of threats throughout their range,” said Laura Patterson, CDFW’s Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Coordinator. “They are shy animals and sensitive to human disturbance. Anyone who removes a healthy turtle from the wild is potentially compromising its ability to successfully reproduce and survive in the future. In addition, anyone – other than a licensed wildlife rehabilitator – who releases turtles that have been kept in captivity is not only breaking the law but putting the health of wild populations at risk by spreading disease. These actions are almost always unnecessary and often quite counterproductive, so I urge the public to take a hands-off approach to caring for these sensitive, imperiled animals.”

Western pond turtle populations have declined significantly in some parts of the state, especially Southern California, due to habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation.

Predation, competition and diseases from non-native species, including pet turtles released into the wild, have also contributed to declines and localized extinctions.

According to the California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 40, it is illegal to capture, collect, intentionally kill or injure, possess, purchase, propagate, sell, transport, import or export any native reptile or amphibian, or part of one, with very few exceptions.

Native reptiles covered under the law include western pond turtles and desert tortoises.

Once they’ve been in captivity, they may not be returned to the wild without written authorization from CDFW.

It is best to leave all native wildlife alone. If you care, leave them there!

A brochure with more information on western pond turtles and what to do if you find one can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/ljy5cmu .

Researchers find the wetter the nests, the fewer sea turtles are hatched

Leatherback turtles are vulnerable to rising sea levels

Sea level rise has been studied in terms of its impacts on coastal ecosystems and habitats; but few studies have looked at its effects on mobile marine species, or their use of coastal habitats.

Many ecosystems that are threatened by sea level rise are home to sea turtle nesting sites. There are seven species of sea turtles in the world, four listed as endangered and two listed as vulnerable.

Conservation and research groups are working to preserve and protect the turtle nesting habitats from human encroachment but, a new study says, their efforts are fighting an uphill battle as oceans continue to rise.

While it’s true that sea turtle nesting habitat could disappear in the future, there is a more imminent threat resulting from sea level rise: environmental changes to turtle nests.

Read more ...

Squirrel found 'nesting' on sheep in Suffolk

The squirrel was found in the thick fleece on one of Elizabeth Dilworth's sheep at her Suffolk home

A baby squirrel was found "nesting" in the thick woollen fleece of a sheep in Suffolk, its owner said.

The squirrel was in the neck area of a domesticated Herdwick sheep in Capel St Mary, near Ipswich.

The sheep's owner took the squirrel kitten to the Wildlives rescue centre at Thorrington near Colchester.

Centre owner Rosie Catford said: "We've had a lot of young squirrels in, but we've never heard of anything like this."

'Something moved'

Liz Dilworth, a primary school teacher in Stratford St Mary, said she found the squirrel when she was checking the collar of her sheep Max.

"Something moved in the wool on his neck," she said.

Read more

Georgia beaches 'critical' for loggerheads - via Herp Digest

By Mary Landers

Savannah Morning News, March 23, 2013 --Loggerhead sea turtles are on track to get many of their nesting beaches designated as critical habitat, including some in Chatham County.

Twenty-three miles of beach on Wassaw, Little Tybee and Ossabaw islands are among the 740 miles of East and Gulf coast beaches proposed for the designation Friday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency.

Beaches chosen were those able to support the highest density of nests among the genetically and geographically distinct populations of loggerheads, which typically return to the beach where they hatched or nearby to lay their eggs.

Last year, Ossabaw hosted 226 sea turtle nests; Wassaw had 139 and little Tybee had 15.

Loggerheads were listed as threatened more than 30 years ago. That listing was revised in 2011 from a single threatened species to nine distinct population segments.

Georgia’s nesting turtles are in the northern unit, which stretches from the Florida/Georgia border north to Virginia.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, along with the National Marine Fisheries Service, initially lacked the data to determine critical habitat, a designation required by the Endangered Species Act.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is expected later this year to designate the marine portions of the critical habitat — likely the areas adjacent to critical beach habitat plus foraging areas offshore.

During a teleconference announcing the proposal Friday, Fish & Wildlife personnel stressed what the designation wouldn’t do.

“You’re not going to see any difference out on the beach,” said Sandy MacPherson, the service’s national sea turtle coordinator. “There will be no new signage, no new reserves or refuges.”

The designation adds an extra layer of review to projects with a federal component, including federal funding or permitting, that could impact the critical habitat.

Beach renourishment is one example, although no developed beaches are proposed as critical habitat in Georgia.

MacPherson downplayed the significance of critical habitat, emphasizing that protections were already in place with the loggerheads’ threatened status under the Endangered Species Act.

Why do it, then?

“This is a requirement under the Endangered Species Act,” she said. “It’s something we must do.”

Advocacy groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana and Turtle Island Restoration Network, had sued to force the federal agencies to create the critical habitat designation.

MacPherson said the designation was already under way before the suit was filed.

There’s evidence that critical habitats provide added protection for species, said Amanda Keledjian of Oceana.

A 2005 study published in the journal BioScience concluded, “Species with critical habitat for two or more years were more than twice as likely to have an improving population trend in the late 1990s and less than half as likely to be declining in the early 1990s, as species without.”

The designation of critical habitat for piping plovers, a small shorebird, led to seasonal closures and protections for plover nests on beaches managed by the National Park Service, said Chuck Underwood of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Jaclyn Lopez of the Center for Biological Diversity said critical habitat can be a tool for nonprofits such as her’s to force the federal government to protect threatened and endangered species to the full extent of the law. It’s also an educational tool.

“The designation calls attention to those areas that are most important,” she said.

Genetic turtle tags reveal surprise nesting trends- mother and daughter turtles nesting at the same time. – via Herp Digest

Lumina News, North Carolina, by Daniel Bowden, 11/21/12

Some unexpected findings during the genetic tagging of sea turtles revealed the prevalence of mother and daughter turtles nesting at the same time. 

“It’s something we never anticipated,” said Matthew Godfrey, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Biologist. Godfrey presented his findings during the 2012 North Carolina Beach Inlet and Waterways Association conference, held at the Blockade Runner Beach Resort on Nov. 19-20.

The average age of maturity for loggerhead sea turtles is 30 years, Godfrey said. If a mother and daughter are nesting at the same time, the mother must be at least 60. 

The higher-than-expected prevalence of siblings nesting in the same area was also surprising. With only one out of 1,000 sea turtles surviving into adulthood, it seems unlikely that two siblings would survive and nest in the same region. This finding suggests that genetic factors may play a role in deciding which turtles survive.

The national recovery plan for loggerhead sea turtles, which was last revised in 2009, lists the species as threatened in the Northwest Atlantic. The plan for the region set the goal of 2,000 nests per season. The number of nests found each season currently averages around 750. Godfrey said to reach the goal of 2,000, wildlife officials are hoping to see a 2-percent increase in nests found during the next 40 years.

One of the most telling indicators of the species improving is the number of nesting females; however, with so much coastline to cover and so few volunteers, it’s hard to locate them all. Godfrey and his team have found a way to identify the nesting females based on the eggs they leave behind.

Eggs are constructed layer by layer inside the oviduct of a mother turtle. As the layers grow, cells from the mother’s oviduct rub off and are trapped underneath them. After removing one egg from each nest, which averages 120 eggs, Godfrey and his team peel back the egg’s layers to identify 18 alleles from the trapped oviduct cells to create a genetic identification for the turtle.

This genetic identification is used to gather information about a variety of aspects of the turtle’s nesting behavior, including the number of nesting females in the region, nest site fidelity and internesting intervals.

Since 2009, the project has sampled 2,954 nests and identified 828 nesting female loggerheads. It has determined the average number of nests per season, per female turtle is three and the internesting interval is about 15 days. The project costs approximately $200,000 per year, and is funded by the National Marine

Sea Turtles Make Strong Showing in Florida

Loggerhead sea turtles are nesting along Florida's beaches in strong numbers this year, according to researchers with the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

This year, surveyors counted 58,172 loggerhead nests along nearly 250 miles of Florida's coastline. The FWC said this is one of the highest counts since monitoring began in 1989.

"After a steep decline in Florida loggerhead nesting between 1998 and 2007, nesting has risen over the past five years," Blair Witherington, a FWC research scientist, said in a statement Friday (Oct. 19). The number of nests peaked at 59,918 in 1998 and hit a low with 28,074 in 2007.

Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/24146-sea-turtles-make-strong-showing-in-florida.html

Arctic blast threatens real Easter eggs

Keep your bird feeders topped up
April 2012. With eggs being laid and incubated by birds in gardens, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is reminding the public to keep feeders topped up as the weather turns colder.

Warm weather over recent weeks has seen a flurry of nesting activity in gardens, with eggs being laid and incubated, and chicks being reared. Breeding so early in the year, however, runs the risk that cold weather can suddenly strike - as is happening now.

Keep your feeders topped up
An Arctic blast has seen 18cm of snow fall overnight in parts of Scotland, and the cold, wet and windy weather is drifting southwards. To help birds at this sensitive time, the BTO is advising that garden feeding stations are topped up, and the charity has also issued a free feeding guide to help.

Producing eggs puts a big demand on female birds. Blue Tits, for example, often lay clutches that exceed their own body weight! Research shows that protein-rich food supplements - such as peanuts, sunflower hearts and mealworms - are likely to be most effective in giving laying females a timely boost.

During incubation, birds face a trade-off between feeding and warming their eggs. Too much time off the nest might cause eggs to chill and die; whereas too much time spent incubating could lead to starvation of the adult bird. The risk of both of these scenarios has increased with the incoming cold weather.

Dr Tim Harrison, BTO Garden BirdWatch, commented: "The cold, wet and windy weather that is sweeping across the country represents a real problem to nesting birds. Falling temperatures elevate the energetic demands on females, at exactly the time that they are producing and incubating their eggs."

He added: "A well-stocked feeding station together with plenty of fresh water will enable garden birds to grab an easy meal during this critical period."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/easter-eggs.html

Hundreds of herons nest in Somerset wood

More than one hundred heron nests are expected at Swell Wood, near Taunton, this spring, a bird charity has said.

The woods, run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), is home to the largest breeding site for herons in south-west England.

Swell Wood is popular because the trees are large enough to carry the weight of the birds.

RSPB warden Steve Ross said: "It's a great big pile of twigs on top of a tree, it's quite a sight to see."

Apart from herons, more than 12 pairs of little egrets are expected to return to nest at the wood.

Mr Ross added: "The little egrets are a fairly new breeding species in the UK. They first started recolonising the south coast in the mid-1990s. The numbers have been increasing throughout the area.

"We had 12 pairs last year nesting at Swell Wood. These are fairly white birds so you can see a brilliant flash of white at the tops of the trees."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-17549743