Hi, Scott --

There are several threads about the Caspian Terns of Interbay, from May of this year -- a short while after they arrived. They were present in the hundreds, loafing and fishing in Smith Cove, and nesting on the Trident Seafoods building. I checked many of the rooftops in the area and didn't see any other tern nesting spots at that time. David Hutchinson and I were following their progress, and we noted egg-laying activities in late May -- posted to Tweeters around May 22. I've tracked them since last year, and to the best of my knowledge, supplemented by information from David and others, the nesting failed last year, and did this year as well. A couple of weeks after the eggs were laid, I took more photos of the rooftop, and the eggs appeared to be gone. There were no visible young. I live above this area of Interbay and heard regular disturbances of the terns during the nighttime hours. I'm not sure what the primary source of failure or predation might be for them. Many of the terns have stayed on, fishing during the day and roosting on the roof (and another nearby Port of Seatle roof) in the evenings. I see them flying regularly from their rooftop, toward Fisherman's Terminal and past the locks, as well as toward West Seattle. I'm assuming these are the same terns, but I realize others have been spotted in the area as well.

Cheers,
Ingrid Taylar
Seattle, WA
semipalmata at gmail.com


Message: 13
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 10:08:56 -0700
From: Scott Atkinson <scottratkinson at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Tweeters] Caspian Terns families put on show
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <SNT144-W13DA22BDE2FB8E1B8B94CEC9C20 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Tweeters: Don't know which rooftop locally they nested on, but we have about 75 CASPIAN TERNS flying low over industrial n.e. Magnolia near the Fisherman's Terminal lately, including just moments ago. There are many family groupsand the birds are vocalizing loudly. They seem to have noissue with the highly industrial character of the marine industry here, andtheir voices are so loud they have no trouble overcoming the sound of forklifts, cranes, etc in the vicinity. Scott AtkinsonLake Stevensmail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com