7 June 2022
Where do your donations go? Read on…
One of our recipients of a Pacific Coast Peregrine Watch scholarship, Nicole Durtschi, is now a Biologist with the California State Parks and was willing to show me around the protected Least Tern nesting sites.
We hopped into a CA State Park 4×4 pick-up truck to visit the area that had experienced habitat loss due to the hot-rodding of dune buggies flattening out the rolling sand dunes. Out we went into wind and onto the trails to observe how the CA State Parks were protecting the Least Terns.
Because public access with off-road vehicles had degraded the habitat, straw piles had been put out to help the wind build up the dunes during the pandemic. Native seeds and plants were scattered and planted over the area. Vegetation was now growing well. It produced a perfect habitat for Least Terns and Snowy Plovers to nest in.
Terns will make several scrapes. The female will choose to occupy a scrape. It’s a little hollow in the sand, soil or light colored pebbles with a few bits of wood or grass stems added at times after incubation has begun.
Usually two beige to light olive with darker speckled eggs are laid. Nicole told me of a method to tell when the tern eggs will hatch. They float an egg in water and according to the angle at which it floats, they will calculate the date when it should hatch.
Nicole had been working with the State Parks to protect Least Terns for four years and had seen a promising increase in numbers of nests. She had a map of locations and a data sheet to record more information about the terns’ nesting conditions as we drove slowly through the sandy trails.
Disturbances by human, avian and terrestrial predators have caused fewer chicks to survive. Yes, we did have to stop and remind people to not go beyond the signed closed off area. Several years ago a skunk was a major predator. Since then Northern Harriers and other raptors caused attrition. This year an American Kestrel is causing problems.
After visiting many locations to collect her data and to give me an opportunity to take a few photos, we headed back. It was very educational to learn more about a new bird for me and its life cycle in the nesting season. I’m so glad the effort is being made locally to protect one of the over 10,000 species of birds on this planet!
Happy trails, Heather and Bob
*Photos other than mine that I have used are credited to individual photographers who contribute to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Birds of the World and Macaulay Library
