Caspian Tern numbers up on Lake Champlain
Birds nest on Four Brothers Island
The Caspian Tern is the largest tern in the world and has found the Four Brothers Islands a suitable place to raise their young. After Double-crested Cormorants denuded parts of Island C eight years ago, the Caspian Terns found the bare ground appealing and began nesting there.
Now the island boasts over 100 nesting pairs which is a ten-fold increase since the first year they were confirmed on Island C. Dave Capen a retired wildlife biology professor from UVM helps manage the terns along with the other colonial nesting birds on the island for The Nature Conservancy which owns Four Brothers and keeps it as a special sanctuary for birds.
Capen says that although the Caspian Tern is rare to Lake Champlain it is not listed as threatened or endangered in Vermont or New York. Much of the core population of the Caspian Tern is found in the Great Lakes but Capen and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation are glad to see a healthy population on Lake Champlain. That's because the tern population in the Great Lakes is suffering from avian botulism, killing thousands of terns.
WARNING: Super adorable shots of baby terns appear in this video. Watch at your own risk.
For more information on the dapper Caspian Tern, check out these links: