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June 04, 1987 - Terns Deserve Their TurnTerns Deserve Their Turn By PAUL STOUTENBURGH This year I think we lost our spring season. The day before the hot wea- ther arrived last week we had the heat on in the house, then summer arrived with temperatures in the 90s. Along with the high tempera- tures there is also the multitude of events that lets you know summer has arrived. People are working in their gardens, lawns are being mowed, baby robins are begging for food in the front yard, people are busy slapping the pesky wood flies and on the East End, people are at the beaches in droves and there my story starts. It's a conflict between the natural world and people. We all love to go to the beach. In the bay, water skiers are zooming about displaying their techniques while parties and picnics can be seen with clusters of people congregated around the food pail. All these activities seem to have taken over most of our beaches, whether it's on the bay or the oceanside. Amongst this sprawl there are birds trying to nest on the beach. The tiny and beautiful piping plover that nests singly above the high tide in a shallow sand nest and the terns that also nest on the sand, but in colonies, are having a tough time. When I was a kid there were piping plovers nest- ing on almost all our beaches, but today it's a rare find to see one. When I tell about the plover's scar- city most people will say, "I've seen them on our beaches," but what they have probably seen most of the time are migrating shorebirds which look somewhat the same but do not nest here. Even now as I visit the nesting sites on our annual Colonial Water - bird Survey I see lingering turn - stones, and other shorebirds that could be confused with the solitary nesting piping plover. This bird is so rare that it's been declared endang- ered and with this ominous title a na- tional effort is under way to save it. Plover's Plaintive Call The plaintive soft note of the pip- ing plover is easily recognized but the black neck band on the small sand - colored body of this bird that runs along our water's edge is the key to its identification. The eggs which are perfectly camouflaged for the beach setting are hard to find ex- cept by the trained eye. The young also blend in with the surroundings so well that most would walk past them as they huddle frozen to the sandy beach. They stay there until Focus on Nature the mother bird signals them that all is clear. This not only is true for man's intrusion, but should a pre- dator fly by, the watchful mother will signal the young to freeze and there- fore dissolve into the landscape. By now one can see why these birds are having such a hard time nesting on our beaches. Their sites have been invaded by people. The boaters landing on isolated beaches, the picnickers, the sun worshippers, the dogs, the cars and the offroad vehicles all contribute to their con- tinual decline. Along with the piping plover, our tern colonies are also fast disappear- ing because of man's invasion. The tern is a beautiful slim -lined bird about the size of a small robin but with much longer, pointed wings. It has a pointed orange bill with a white body and light gray wings with a black patch on its head that makes it one of the sleakest and most hand- some of our waterbirds. You'll see it flying almost any- where there are small bait fish. It's a good omen for fishermen, for when they see these birds diving, they know all too well that there are big fish below. The big fish in turn are driving the smaller fish to the sur- face where they are snatched up by the diving terns. In the frenzy of the fish below snapping at everything that moves on the surface, often a tern's leg is lost, but that's the price it must pay for eating at the table of a bluefish or striper. Terns Dive -Bomb Intruders As kids we all knew where tern colonies were and we'd often go to check on them and see the young crouched in their nest hoping we wouldn't notice them. It was then the whole colony would take to the air screaming and the particular bird whose nest you were by would dive - bomb you incessantly. Often they would hit you, which meant that we didn't spend too much time in the area. In those days an occasional visit by a couple of kids could be tol- erated but today it's more than just a couple of kids. It's the masses of people and their various pieces of equipment that have driven the birds out. IRRIGATI your lawn will love you! Full irrigation service at affordable prices. Sprinkler systems installed. Full year -round maintenance. North Fork exclusivity for personal care and attention. Service is the most important feature. The Suffolk Times/June 4, 1987 /Page 9A Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh COMMON TERN - -Along with the piping plover, the common tern is having a difficult time competing with man for beach space on which to nest. Look closely and you will see two well - camouflaged young hud- dled under the adult in a typical nest. To protect the remaining tern and plover nesting sites, the Nature Con- servancy is again this year providing volunteers and four paid stewards to watch over the areas as well as to inform the public of the birds' nest- ing problems. Right now the Long Island wide colonial waterbird and piping plover survey is being conducted to deter- mine just how many birds are in the area and where they are. The Sea - tuck Research Program of Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithol- ogy has conducted this program since 1983 with the cooperation of the De- partment of Environmental Conser- vation. It's through the Colonial Bird Register at the Seatuck Research Lab that we find the hard evidence of the decline of these birds and hope- fully, through everyone's coopera- tion, we can reverse this alarming trend. So if you see "Keep Out -- Bird Nesting Area" signs, please help save these endangered birds of our beaches. There are so few nesting sites left we should be willing to give up these beaches during their nest- ing time. After all, they were here long before we and they, too, deserve a place in the sun. We must start to learn to live with our natural world or in the end we will have a world not worth living in.