Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 12:53:24 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "David F. Brinker" Organization: Project Owlnet Subject: Potential Least Tern Colony Comments: To: kbert59@yahoo.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Kathie and other MD Osprey readers. I am the DNR wildlife ecologist that serves as the Maryland DNR's technical expert on colonial nesting waterbirds. Many of you out in cyberland, within the Maryland Ornithological Society, or on MD Osprey, certainly recognize my name and many of you know me personally. As you may know, Least Terns are listed as a Threatened Species in Maryland because of a continued loss of natural nesting sites and other habitat loss or degradation issues. The Least Tern population in Maryland has continued on a slow decline for the past 15-20 years, probably longer , but we do not have good data prior to 1985. Kathie, if you or any other MD Osprey reader locates a colony near BWI, or anywhere else for that matter, please let me know of the location. In the past 15 years, a greater and greater proportions of Maryland's Least Tern population has taken to nesting on building roofs. Flat gravel topped building roofs represent alternative nesting habitat for Least Terns because these roofs mimic the barren, predator free environments such as sandy shorelines, temporary sand bars and other naturally barren habitats that Least Terns traditionally nested on. To Least Terns, roof tops represent islands in a sea non-suitable nesting habitat occupied by terrestrial predators, people, stray cats, etc., etc., etc. Roof top Least Tern colonies are the most difficult waterbird colony to locate in Maryland. The increase in roof top nesting makes survey and census efforts more difficult each year because we can not fly low enough over populated areas to locate roof top Least Tern colonies from a small air plane (our normal method of locating waterbird colonies). There are a couple of Least Tern colonies in Baltimore Co. that occupy roof tops, so one near BWI is not totally out of the question. Least Tern colonies are possible in any location within about 5-10 miles of the Chesapeake Bay. In the past we have had them in Harford, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Calvert, St. Mary's, Kent, Queen Annes, Talbot, Dorchester, Somerset and Worcester counties. Roof top colonies have occurred in all of these counties except Calvert, St. Mary's, Somerset and Worcester. The most frequently used roof tops appear to be schools, especially larger complexes that offer more habitat. For a while high schools appeared to be favored, but we have now had them on several lower level school complexes. They have also occurred on the top of warehouses (Toyota and Mercedes Benz distribution centers) and other industrial buildings. So, look anywhere that you might find flat toped gravel roofs! Anyone who observes Least Terns in numbers over a building roof should be suspicious and report these locations to us (the DNR). Remember these also represent great finds for the breeding bird atlas project. In the past, many of the roof top colonies that we know of were originally reported to us by bird watchers. We thank all those individuals many times over, please keep up the good work. Please do not be concerned about reporting colonies that we may already know of. I would rather politely tell 100 interested conservation minded individuals that I already know of a colony, than miss one new location because the observer thought I already knew of it. Please do not hesitate to call or e-mail with your observations!!!! If anyone wants to discuss potential roof top Least Tern colonies further, please call or e-mail me. If it takes me a while to cal back or respond to an e-mail, please be patient - I'm out in the field! Best regards all. P.S. We track all waterbird colonies annually! Feel free to pass on any observations of any new waterbird colony that you find to us. Even thought we routinely do aerial surveys to locate colonies, there are always a few new ones lurking out there. The most frequent finds from the general public and bird watching conservationists are mainland Great Blue Heron colonies and roof top Least Tern colonies. These two can be the most difficult to locate. Dave Brinker Maryland Natural Heritage Program Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources Office: (410) 744-8939 Office e-mail: dbrinker@dnr.state.md.us Home e-mail: dbrinker@bellatlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================