“Shady” Business for the Birds: Surveying Shelters for Least Terns

This text was written by 2025 Coastal Outreach Intern, Ben Ellis.

Previous to this summer season, I by no means gave a lot thought to how birds discover shade on scorching seashores. On naked seashores, even a couple of levels could make the distinction for chicks between survival and loss of life.

This previous summer season, working as a Coastal Outreach Intern on the North Shore of Lengthy Island, I had the chance to contribute to a research on Least Tern chick’s shelter use. 

Audubon’s coastal workers in New York has been monitoring nesting shorebirds on Lengthy Island for over a decade, together with Least Tern colonies alongside the North Shore at Stehli Seashore. The research would assess using shelters by Least Tern chicks, and the frequency of use, to assist in defending them from elevated temperatures and predators.

With the knowledge collected, our coastal workers would decide if the presence of shelters in Least Tern colonies helps improve productiveness (their skill to efficiently increase chicks) at choose websites.

Teen volunteers on the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center deliberate and constructed 22 open fowl shelters which have been categorized into three shapes.  The three various kinds of shelters—field shelters, triangular shelters, and prolonged shelters—have been put in within the protected Least Tern colony space at Stehli Seashore to offer shelter from the solar for the Least Tern chicks. 

The volunteers and I noticed how the chicks used every shelter sort to see in the event that they confirmed a transparent desire.  The Audubon middle equipped us with brilliant orange luggage that have been ready with provides wanted to survey the colony.  We got a map of the colony with numbered shelters marked, binoculars, and a surveying sheet to report any observations.

Every day of surveying, we recorded the time that we performed the research, the temperature of the seashore through the research, and if there have been any chicks utilizing the shelters, what number of chicks have been utilizing them and of which shelter sort. 

One reminiscence stands out vividly: I keep in mind intently watching a small, fluffy, grey Least Tern chick clumsily waddling within the open dunes, sprinting often in the direction of shady patches of grass.  I used to be in awe after I witnessed the chick strategy one in every of our field shelters and duck its head into the shade.  I centered my binoculars onto the mum or dad diving all the way down to perch itself on high of the field, noticing its watchful and protecting eyes gaze out into the far distance.

It was a rewarding technique to spend the summer season, having fun with the seashore whereas contributing to the wellbeing of our native shorebirds.  

All through our time surveying, we needed to overcome quite a few challenges.  After a stormy evening, we noticed that a number of of the wood shelters have been destroyed and scattered throughout the seashore shore. The subsequent week, we noticed elements of the protecting fence have been damaged, and a beachgoer shared with me that he seen folks getting into the protected colony’s fenced off nesting space.  

Later, we returned to Stehli Seashore to assist restore the shelters and the fencing. Despite the fact that we have been confronted with many difficulties, we labored onerous to surmount them. I’m extraordinarily grateful to Audubon for the chance to expertise conservation firsthand and see the true impression it will possibly have.