Wipe Out!

A week ago the above raft contained 14 nests of Common Terns some with chicks but most with eggs about to hatch, also a pair of Herring Gulls with 2 young chicks. Today not a single Common Tern chick or egg as predicted. The Herring Gulls wiped them out! Potentially 30 Common Terns have been sacrificed so that 2 Herring Gull chicks could survive. This could easily have been avoided if the Herring Gulls eggs had been removed when they were first laid, they would have nested again elsewhere and the Common Terns would have had a chance. Some times I think the RSPB as an organisation has completely lost its way.  A policy of non intervention has been cited as a reason, if that's the case why spends £1,000s on electric fences to keep out predators? why shoot foxes if they breach the fence? why kill Mink in the winter? why put down herbicides to kill some plants so others thrive? its all intervention.
On a brighter note I managed to catch up with the unseasonal Goldeneye on Burrowes thanks to Pete, Pam and Colin. Also on Burrowes 2 Avocet, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Dunlin, 2 Little-ringed Plovers, 2 Ringed Plovers and Black-tailed Godwit. On the ARC 3 Little-ringed Plovers at least 1 sitting on eggs, a Common Sandpiper and a Green Sandpiper.