In 2019 Cormorants successfully nested and fledged young for the first time on the Reserve and they have repeated their success in 2020. This aquatic bird has made use of an old Tern platform. Up to 50 individual Cormorants can be seen perched on these wooded beams at any one time, which makes it an important resting/roosting site. However, six pairs nested on the structure in 2019 and five pairs have nested again in 2020, fledging an average of two chicks per pair.
The sudden use of this structure as a nesting site is due to the specific race of the Cormorant that is utilising it. Typically, the sub-species Carbo has previously occupied this platform for resting/roosting and are a cliff nesting race, so would not nest on a platform such as. However, these nesting Cormorants are the sub-species, Sinensis, which are a tree nesting race and so is more adept to nesting on this type of structure.
