This week I made another trip to San Diego to assist with putting geo-locators on Least Terns again. The procedure was the same. We got in the truck, rode along as we looked for nesting terns that did not have geo-locators on them yet, and when we found them we would set the trap. Our goal was to tag ten terns. I thought it would be a short day, considering that a week ago we were able to get twelve by noon. However, there weren’t many terns nesting near the dirt path where we hide in the truck. A couple of times Tom Ryan, the main person working on the project, had to lay outside the truck and try to hide behind a log or a dune. The terns seemed more cautious when approaching the traps and there were times when they would all disappear for brief moments of time. A Peregrine Falcon picking off a Least Tern in mid-air definitely made the job a bit harder. It was cool to watch the falcon on the hunt, but it was sad to see a Least Tern get taken. At the end of the day we were able to put geo-locators on seven terns. That means that there are over forty birds with geo-locators on them. Now we will wait for next year and try to recover the geo-locators. There is concern over it being an El Niño year. This can decrease the number of terns that return with geo-locators and it can alter the data they provide. We will hope for the best and see what kind of return we get next year.
Uncategorized
Murre Chicks!
Hello all. Hope the summer is treating you with some sun and outdoor adventures. Maybe even some birding time thrown in there as well. The month of June was an exhilarating time for the common Read more…