Cats and Birds information on net.

Atlantic Coast least terns shopping for safe nesting grounds are finding a good deal at Glynn Place Mall in Brunswick, Georgia. A flock of about 200 terns has recently been nesting on the mall's gravel and tar roof, one of a growing number of roofs hosting colonies of these rare birds.

The robin-sized terns descend on the mall each spring because their traditional nesting sites--undisturbed beaches--are now at a premium. "Least terns were once distributed across natural beaches in Georgia," says Sara Schweitzer, a biologist at the University of Georgia who monitors the state's least tern colonies. "But those locations are also desirable to people and development."

While nesting on high has drawbacks, in many built-up areas it is now the best the birds can do. Seventy-three percent of Georgia's 1,270 known breeding least tern pairs nested on gravel rooftops, compared with only 1 percent on beaches, according to a 1997 study by Schweitzer and her colleague Michael G. Krogh. The remaining 26 percent settled on dredge-spoil islands, where sand has been dragged up and dumped to clear channels. Of all the sites, the Glynn Place Mall had the highest nesting success, with 53 percent of the eggs hatching.

The rooftop nesting trend represents some good news for the beleaguered least terns. Once abundant along sandy beaches from the East Coast to Southern California, these dainty water birds became scarce after receiving a one-two punch from unregulated hunting, then habitat loss.

Rooftop nesting colonies have turned up since the 1970s in Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, providing hope that the least tern might once again bounce back. Of the tern's three subspecies, only the widespread Atlantic Coast population, which numbers more than 40,000 birds nesting from Maine to Texas, has been recorded nesting on roofs. The other two subspecies are federally listed as endangered. The interior least tern, which nests on river sand bars from the Mississippi Delta north to South Dakota, numbers about 6,800 birds. The California least tern population, which hangs on in coastal Southern California, totals more than 8,000.

# posted by Medical Information : 4:46 AM