Least terns depart – volunteers move in at Alameda Point refuge

The least tern nesting season ended in mid-August much as it usually does – a lonely and dangerous place for young terns.  There were three of four pairs of adults flying back and forth with food for their young chicks.  The rest of the adults and their flight-ready young had left, leaving the remaining families without the strength of numbers to mob a predator. 

Volunteers arrived at the nesting site on two Sundays in September to begin gathering up the oyster shells, wooden A-frame shelters, and clay tiles randomly arrayed about the site that serve as camouflage and chick shelters from predators, and to remove weeds that had sprouted up during the summer.

Read the full story and view the photo gallery on the Alameda Point Environmental Report.