The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Terns: you’re on candid camera!
Webcam project allows people to observe roseate terns and other birds
GUILFORD » Standing at the Town Marina, gazing out across the Sound, Faulkner’s Island looks calm and peaceful. Yet, from May through July, this island is anything but.
Each year thousands of terns flock to the 3-mile, crescentshaped island, drawn to its pebbly terrain and solitary environment, to commence their nesting season. At its peak over 1,000 common tern couples and upwards to 40 roseate tern couples will call the islet home.
Two cameras are now streaming live web cam video from Faulkner’s. These cameras’ main focus is the endangered roseate tern, but have recorded an oyster catcher and common terns nesting in the area.
The island is off limits to visitors, except for one public tour weekend each September when the terns have headed back to South America for the winter.
While the cameras are an important research tool, they also give the public a view they would normally be unable to see. It is important to educate the public about the work being done on the island, stressed Menunkatuck Audubon Society Treasurer Lorrie Shaw.
“They feel like, ‘How come I can only go one day in September?’” she said. “The reason is that it’s a real refuge for these birds. It’s the only place they have.”
The webcam can be accessed through the group’s website at http://bit.ly/2rGvY9V.
“We thought if we could just highlight that tern and also give U.S. Fish and Wildlife access, which we have… so they can zoom in on a roseate tern and study it without actually being there,” added Terry Shaw, a Menunkatuck Audubon Society board member.
Observation of the birds is important research according to Kris Vagos, a wildlife biologist at Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Westbrook.
At press time she was on the island training three seasonal interns who will live and work on the island for the summer, studying the terns.
Their work will include counting and finding nests, putting bands on the common tern chicks to enable identifying them and tracking them, making sure that the tern’s predators stay off the island, protecting the colony from human disturbances and reading bands from the nesting adults so they can see which ones have returned to the island, according to Vagos.
The cameras are a positive addition to her work, she said.
“I’ve spent seven years watching these terns,” she wrote in an email from the island.
“I’ve seen them snuggle with their chicks, feed each other, choose a particular pebble to place in their nest to make it “just-so,” chatter about with their neighbors, give chase when someone shows up with a fish, and many more amazing things!” she added. “I want other people to share this experience so that they will love and want to protect them as much as I do. I am hoping that this live web cam does the trick.”
One camera was installed on the island’s north spit in November and focused on the seals throughout the winter. Prior to the terns’ return the camera focused on an oyster catcher who had taken up temporary residence on the island.
“The terns are kind of harassing this oyster catcher because he’s right in their turf,” said Terry Shaw, last month. “So it’s going to be a tight battle for the oyster catcher to get that chick hatched and leave.”
Two oystercatcher chicks hatched on May 15 and the adults are now leading them to the shore to learn how to find food.
The second camera, on the east bank, was installed within the last month and has the ability to capture a sunrise and “de-
pending on if we can get a roseate tern in that area we will zoom in on it. If we don’t get a roseate tern we’ll for sure get a common tern.”
The cameras are mounted on blinds, built by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to observe the terns while on the island.
“Blinds are like a large telephone booth with little doors and windows in them so they (observers) can peek out,” explained Terry Shaw. “They were put up for humans to go into and then observe.”
The AXIS cameras, much like parking lot security cameras, are enclosed by a dome to protect them from the elements. The birds cannot see them or detect any movement when the cameras are controlled remotely.
The project is a partnership between the Mentunkatuck Audubon Society, The Stewart B. McKinney Wildlife Preserve and Faulkner’s Light Bridgade and was funded by a $4,500 grant from the Guilford Foundation.
The impetus for these cameras came from a very successful year for the Menunkatuck’s West River Memorial Park Osprey Camera in New Haven. This camera had over 50,000 Facebook visits and 90,000 visits to the live streaming website during its 15 months of operation.
The tern cameras have had over 15,000 views, with more each day, from the United States, Europe and South America.
Two solar panels and battery backup supply the energy for their operation. The group was fortunate to hook into the existing network established by the Faulkner’s Light Brigade for their scenic camera on the island.
Shaw stressed that none of this would have been possible without the technical support of Menunkatuck Board Member Jim Murtagh and former Faulkner’s Light Brigade member and Guilford resident Steve McGuire.
“We’re one of very few Audubon chapters that has live stream video cameras,” said Menunkatuck Audubon Society member Dennis Riordan.
“This is why we exist, in order to protect birds,” he added. “And here we have an opportunity to not only provide that for the Fish and Wildlife, with close-ups of birds as they’re breeding so they can continue their research, but also through people seeing that, increase the public will to protect the birds.
“Not just these birds, but all birds,” he added. “That’s what we’re about.”
How you can help or for more info, contact the Menunkatuck Audubon Society, P.O. Box 214, Guilford; www. menunkatuck.org; Facebook Menunkatuck Audubon.