WILDLIFE enthusiasts have done a globe trotting bird a good turn - and helped boost its numbers.

Nearly 600 new Common Tern chicks were born, successfully reared and fledged on the Saltholme reserve run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, near Billingham, on Teesside, this summer.

The Teesmouth Bird Club sponsored the installation of three artificial islands to attract terns looking for a nesting site.

And the rafts were well used. Common Terns, which breed from the Arctic Circle to Africa, homed in on Saltholme. While 344 adult birds bred on the main reserve, compared to 296 last year, a further 34 pairs raised young on the rafts anchored on Cowpen Marsh, adjacent to the main reserve and managed by the RSPB - ten more than in 2013.

Mike McGrory, chairman of Teesmouth Bird Club, said: “'It is always a great pleasure when visiting migrants have a successful breeding year on Teesmouth.

"Our club objectives include encouraging the protection of birds and their habitats and also to co-operate with other conservation bodies with similar aims to our own.

"It was with this in mind that our Board of Trustees agreed to make this contribution to provide tern rafts to be managed by RSPB Saltholme.

"It is particularly pleasing that this greater availability of safe nesting locations combined with other factors to contribute to this bumper breeding year.”

Dave Braithwaite, RSPB site manager, said: “What happened to the terns was just a part of a Saltholme success story this year.

“It has been the most productive year since I have been here and I started in 2006."

An estimated 400 young Sand Martins hatched and fledged successfully after the parents-to-be took full residency of a near 100-hole, man-made sand bank on the reserve.