SHOREBIRD MIGRANTS TO CLEETHORPES SANDFLATS COULD BE HIT BY DEADLY PLAGUE

Common tern - there have been many casualties this summer 

CLEETHORPES is likely to see fewer visiting shorebirds this autumn in the wake of bird flu.

Common terns - also known as sea swallows because of their forked tails - often stop off on the beach near  Cleethorpes Leisure Centre on their migration from breeding grounds in the Farne Islands to West Africa.

August is the month when their local presence is greatest. 

But this is one of the species so hard hit by avian influenza that the Farne Islands, a tourism hotspot, is one of the places that has had temporarily to be closed to visitors. 

It remains to be seen whether there has been any impact on wading birds such as knot, dunlin, curlew and bar-tailed godwit which nest in Scandinavia and the Arctic.

Naturalists are on alert for signs of casualties not just on Lincolnshire beaches but also on Cleethorpes boating lake which is home to hundreds of waterfowl, particularly grey lag geese, and at nature reserves. 

Report in today's edition of The Daily Telegraph