Clinging to the Edge is the story of one breeding season at the Beacon Ponds colony on the North Sea coast in East Yorkshire. It offers an intimate portrait of these endangered birds, covering everything from foraging and breeding to predators and conservation. 

The book is written from one person’s perspective, that of Richard Boon who, as Chair of the Beacon Ponds Little Tern Project Management Committee, a volunteer for Spurn Observatory Trust as well as the RSPB and BTO, is best placed to write this 'how-to’ manual and insight in the sharp end of species conservation. 

Richard’s talent for writing anecdotes about the trials and tribulations of the colony and the detail that is given to the day-to-day monitoring, maintenance of electric fences and protecting the birds from predators such as grass snakes and otters, makes it a charming read. At 152 pages, the book is concise, comprised of monthly accounts spanning from April to August of the 2022 season. You gain a real sense of the area and the colony over this time frame and feel as though you are there, walking across the “ripples, bowls and ridges” of the beach near Spurn Point. 

This colony was first mentioned in text in John Cordeaux’s 1872 treatise Birds of the Humber District and so Clinging to the Edge continues a tradition of charting the journey of the Beacon Ponds colony. And with Little Tern numbers going the way of so many other species and declining in the UK, putting this knowledge to paper for prosperity is more important now than ever.

Reviewed by

Gillian Birtles