Grand Bahama birders conducted their annual field trip to Peterson Cay, home to a nesting colony of over 200 Bridled Terns.
Bridled Terns are pelagic birds which means they spend their lives at
sea and come only to land during their breeding season in the summer.
They lay a single egg in limestone crevices on uninhabited offshore cays and islands.
In order to prevent people from walking through the vegetation and
disturbing these nests, possibly crushing eggs and chicks, the birders
installed rebar and caution tape around the upper cay nesting colony,
leaving the beach open for visitors.
Chick hatching
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A sign was placed on the beach as well asking people to stay away
from the nesting area and making sure that beach goers keep their dogs on
leashes.
The Grand Bahama Birding Group together with Grand Bahama Nature
Tours have monitored and protected this Bridled Tern nesting colony for
many years.
Erika Gates stated that she was extremely pleased that this years
efforts were much improved with proper signage from The Bahamas National
Trust.
Erika went on to say: "We were happy to have Denny Moore, Science
Research Officer of the BNT come up from Nassau and join us in this
effort.
Denny is very skilled in seabird observation and recording and we
were able to conclude that this was the largest number of birds and
nests recorded in recent years!"
Bridled Tern parent watching over nest area.
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Please join the Grand Bahama Birding Group on its next field trip at
Garden of the Groves and a side trip to the Least Tern nesting Colony on
Discovery Beach this coming Saturday, July 21. at 8:00 a.m. Meet at
Garden of the Groves.
Egg in rocky crevice "nest"
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Erika Gates –
Bird Talk:
owner
of Kayak Nature Tours (one of the first Eco-Tour businesses in The
Bahamas); co-founder of the Ecotourism Association; a published writer;
and a Cacique award winner! Her column
Bird Talk will enlighten and educate us about birds of The Bahamas, as well as the importance of Ecology. Erika can be reached at
gbntours@hotmail.com
