I cannot believe why anyone would take all the little tern eggs, its a tragedy ,If they are found they should lock them up and throw away the key, but in this namby pamby country we will probably give them counselling ,and a few hours community service

This is very sad news and just goes to show the scum that's out there. As the site is wardened then it would appear that this has been carried out by a person or persons who planned this quite carefully. I only hope the authorities catch up with the perpetrators and dish out maximum sentences.

Crimdon Denemouth is on the Durham coast just yards northwards of and marginally outside of or straddling the Cleveland boundary. It comprise sand dunes set back from the beach offering extensive views of a raised shingle area roped off in the season for the breeding terns.

For years Crimdon has been the prime breeding site (actually the only site) in the county for Little Terns, which have good years and bad. Last year the site received the unwelcome attentions of a kestrel predating the young, and foxes are always a potential problem.
This year there was heartening news; the birds had 40 nests, with chicks expected to be hatching in just a few more days.
Everyone was looking forward to 80/90 young being produced with fingers crossed for favourable weather.

This morning the BBC North East news reported that last night the colony was raided with all the eggs taken.

This is desperately depressing, (especially so for the wardens, to have come so far only to meet with this). Across the wider birding community here there is a mixture of outrage, anger, and total contempt for whoever did this.

For myself, it's just another of those sickening things which make me feel ashamed to be a human alongside such scum as sadly exist..