Pupils help attract kittiwakes to tower

A tower containing human-made nests, created in part by schoolchildren, appears to have attracted its first pair of kittiwakes.

The nests were set up on a steel structure in Gateshead which has been specially designed to protect the gulls from wind and solar glare.

Pupils at Percy Hedley SEND school in North Tyneside built the first batch of nests placed in the tower.

Kittiwakes have been nesting around the quayside since the 1960s.

The gulls return each spring to build nests and breed.

The tower in Gateshead is a pilot project funded by the Dogger Bank South (DBS) offshore wind farm and was in part built to mitigate the potential risk posed by turbines to the local kittiwake population.

DBS project manager Colin McAllister said: "We will monitor how many kittiwakes use the tower and how many chicks are raised over time."

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