The RSPB says sandwich terns, badly hit by the virus in 2022, appear 'unaffected' this year.
Although the numbers of returning birds had halved from 2022, the chicks fledged early, moving away from the breeding area on to the shoreline, from where they are expected to leave soon.Image source,Mr Westerberg said about 5,000 black headed gulls had succumbed to bird flu, with only a handful of fledged juveniles surviving.
Wardens have been unable to live on the island since bird flu was confirmed. Instead they have been monitoring by visits. Mr Westerberg, who took up his post mid June, said: "Had I taken on this job without bird flu it would have been unbelievably fantastic doing all the seabird monitoring. "But, because of bird flu, it's frustrating dealing with it, for good reasons, as it's restricting what we're trying to do with monitoring, as it wouldn't be safe for the birds and it wouldn't be safe for us."
He is hopeful funding can be secured for environmental monitoring at Coquet, with research carried out into whether the virus remains in the ground.Natural England has been approached for comment.