Meet the Terns
Common Terns are relatively small water birds divided into two populations: inland and coastal. Both have seen population fluctuations in the past hundred years from human activity like hunting and DDT. While today the coastal population has remained stable in numbers, the inland has declined to the point that Common Terns are listed as threatened in New York. Oneida Lake has two islands that are each home to colonies of inland terns that CBFS monitors extensively. This week I joined some tern experts on one of their visits.
Our main task was to check each nest for eggs and record our observations. If we came across a new nest, we would mark it with the colored rocks seen in the pictures. Tern eggs camouflage with the rocks and shells they are laid in, so it felt like we were hunting for Easter eggs! Checking nests is not for the faint of heart though– the terns are constantly landing on you and giving you “kisses” with their beaks. Luckily, none of us got pooped on this time out.
While we were out, we saw the first chicks of the season! This was an adorable surprise as we were not expecting to see chicks until next week. This one hatched the day of the photo and weighed only 10 grams. You can see he still had his egg tooth on the tip of his beak which helped him break the egg.
Visitors
This week also brought some special guests to the station. On Wednesday, members of the New York DEC and Cornell came up to tour the station and learn about the different projects happening here. On Friday, researchers from Brooklyn came to collect Round Goby fry. They are planning on testing whether the invasive goby can tolerate the salty waters of the Long Island Sound. If the gobies can, they could spread into New England lakes and rivers and take over native fish populations there. We used a seine net (pronounced “sane”) to catch the goby fry which involved circling a large area of rocky water offshore and slowly closing it in.
This week was packed to the gills with things to do, but I think they went swimmingly. Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with this picture of a bowfin. Fun fact: bowfins have been around for 60 million years!
