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Royal Tern Nesting Attempts in California: Isolated Or Significant Incidents?

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Royal Tern Nesting Attempts in California: Isolated Or Significant Incidents? ROYAL TERN NESTING ATTEMPTS IN CALIFORNIA: ISOLATED OR SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS? FRED C. SCHAFFNER, Department of Zoology, San Diego State University,San Diego, California 92182 (presentaddress: Department of Biology, Universityof Miami, P.O. Box 249118, Coral Gables, Florida 33124) Only four nestingattempts are knownfor the Royal Tern ($tema maxima) in California, all at the San Diego Bay salt evaporatingponds. This paper describesthe two mostrecent nesting attempts in detailand discussesall four attemptsin terms of coincidentalevents in California fish stocksof the close inshore area. PREVIOUS NESTING RECORDS The firstknown nestingattempts in Californiaby both the Royal Tern and ElegantTern ($. elegar•$)occurred in 1959 on the dikes separatingthe salt evaporatingponds at the south end of San Diego Bay, San Diego County, California(Gallup and Bailey 1960). The attempt, by a singlepair of Royal Terns, failed. The egg was collectedby Gallup and is on deposit at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Los Angeles (WFVZ 114, 199-1). It measures 62.8 x 44.9 min. In 1960 a second nesting attempt was reported without details (Small 1960) to have involvedat least30 nestsand producedmany young, but no nestsof this specieswere found in 1961 (Small 1961). RECENT NESTING ATTEMPTS In spring of 1980 a singlepair of Royal Terns attempted to nest on the saltworksdike separatingponds 35 and 33 (circled"a," Figure 1) in the colonyof ElegantTerns, which numbered607 breedingpairs in 1980, 861 in 1981 and 800 in 1982. The nestscrape with itssingle egg was locatedon the periphery of a group of 32 ElegantTern scrapes.Amongst this group also were three CaspianTern ($. caspia)nests--two containingtwo eggsand one containingthree eggs. (The number of Caspian Tern breedingpairs at the saltworkswas roughly 400 in 1980 and 1981 and roughly 350 in 1982.) I discoveredthe Royal Tern eggon 9 May and at that time one RoyalTern could be seen nearby. Later that afternoon, from a vantage point off the breedingdike, I saw two Royal Ternstogether at the nest and observedthem for about 2 hours, until darknessset in. On 11 May I did not see the Royal Ternsat the nest site and I found the egg with a number of punctureholes, crackedand lyingin a pool of its own formercontents. This was apparently the work of Ruddy Turnstones(Arer•aria ir•terpres), which I had previously observeddestroying Elegant Tern eggs in a similarfashion, much like the Ruddy Turnstonepredation on Sooty Tern ($. fuscata) eggs on Eniwetok Island (Crossinand Huber 1970). Within a few daysthe Royal Ternswere no longer seen in the area. I collectedthe damagedegg and depositedit at the WesternFoundation of VertebrateZoology (WFVZ 125, 645). It measures68.0 x 40.8 mm, which comparesfavorably with other eggsin the WFVZ collection,as well as with Western Birds 16:71-80. 1985 71 ROYAL TERN NESTING ATTEMPTS the measurementsof 63 x 45 mm suggestedby Harrison(1978) as average for Royal Tern eggs. The most recent breeding by Royal Terns occurred at the San Diego saltworksduring 1982. On 8 May I discoveredtwo Royal Tern nest scrapes, eachwith a singleegg, in a groupof about230 ElegantTern nest scrapes atop the north to southrunning arm of dike 33/5 (circled"b," Figure1). The first nestwas with a groupof three ElegantTern nests,placed about 1 m from the south edge of the large ElegantTern nestinggroup. The secondnest was about 10 m north of the firstnest, towards the middleof the largeElegant Tern nestinggroup and on its westernperiphery. The egg of the firstnest measured62.4 x 42.3 mm and had an off-white groundcolor with an approximatelyrandom patternof medium-to-largedark brown spots,and was similarin appearanceto the 1980 egg. The egg of the secondnest had a palebeige or buffground color and wascompletely covered with a rather uniform pattern of small-to-medium dark brown spots. It measured 62.9 x 42.8 mm. On 10 June the firstnest contained a chickwhich may have hatchedup to 2 dayspreviously. The chickhad bright orange legs and bill.Its down wasa pale yellowcolor, lightlyoverlaid with smallbrown spots. On 18 June the secondnest contained a chick which was approximately3 days old. This chickalso had brightorange legs and bill but its down was a medium yellow-beigecolor, heavily overlaid with medium-to-largedark brown spots. On this visit I banded both chicks (USFWS bands 664-81701 and 664-81702), each on the left leg. I alsoexamined the nestscrapes and in the first nest I found two Northern Anchovies (Engraulisrnordax) measuring6.0 and 7.2 cm, standardlengths. I alsorecovered a regurgitationconsisting of a small6.2 cm (standardlength) Northern Anchovy from the older chick. The regurgitationsof the smallerElegant Tern chicks consisted of largerspecimens of E. rnordax,ranging from 8.0 to 13.2 cm (standardlength) and averaging 10.0 to 11.0 cm (standardlength). After the banding and above-mentionedcollections were completed,the older chick becameambulatory while the youngerchick remained quiet in its nest. On 23 June both Royal Tern chickshad entered the creche (nursery flock)of ElegantTern chicks. On thisvisit and againon 1 JulyI recoveredboth chicksfrom the creche and collectedtheir regurgitations.The regurgitations consistedprimarily of partiallydigested tail pieces. These appeared to be fragmentsof fairly large (15 to 20 cm) atherinids,probably the very common Topsmelt(Atherinops affinis). Some fragments were probablysurfperch (Em- biotocidae).I also recovereda 5.5 cm (standardlength) specimenof an an- chovy, Anchoa. Interestingly,on all visitsup to 23 June eachRoyal Tern chick was attended by both parents,unlike the ElegantTern chicks which were usuallyattended by only one parent or left unattendedin the creche. On 1 July I found the youngerchick attended by both parentsand the older chickattended by a singleparent. Duringthe lastweek of May 1982 the ElegantTern colony was invaded by a pair of straydogs. They destroyeda sectionof the colonyon the northeastto southwestrunning arm of the dike 33/5 and on dike 36/37 (Figure1) which 72 ROYAL TERN NESTING ATTEMPTS San Diego Bay Silver Strand Chula Vista State Beach Wildlife Reserve Chula Vista SouthBay Biol. StudyArea Salt Company Main St. Naval Communication Station ImperialBeach ImperialBeachBlvd.I• , Ream Field Tijuana River Ave. Estuarine Sanctuary Border Field StatePark Figure 1. The south San Diego Bay area includingthe salt evaporatingponds and the Ti)uana River sloughs(Tijuana River EstuarineSanctuary): a = the locationof the un- successful1980 Royal Tern nestingattempt: b = the location of the 1982 successful nestingby two pairs of Royal Terns. 73 ROYAL TERN NESTING ATTEMPTS had few nestsof aggressiveCaspian Terns associated with it, leavingthis area almostcompletely unprotected. I found over 100 dead ElegantTern chicks, all badlymauled. Many morechicks were missing.Fortunately, however, the sectionof the colonyin whichthe RoyalTern chickswere locatedhad many associatedCaspian Tern nests.The dogsnever penetratedthis area and both Royal Tern chickswere seenin the crecheagain on 19 June, capableof short hop-and-glideflights. By thistime the RoyalTern chicks were visitedonly intermittentlyby one or both parentsand, by 1 August,either chick could be seenflying, following one or both of its parentsover the saltworksor over the Tijuana River sloughs (Tijuana River EstuarineSanctuary, Figure 1), where the Royal Terns fre- quently foraged. On such occasionsthe parent that was followed usually carried a large fish. I was seldom able to identify positivelythe fish being carried,but in very few instancesdid the fishshow the familiarsilver and black appearanceof E. mordax, whichconstitutes the greatbulk of the ElegantTern diet (Schaffner1982). I tentativelyidentified most of thesefish as Atherinidae, again, probablyTopsmelt. DISCUSSION Although there may have been other intermittentbut unreportedRoyal Tern nestingattempts at the San Diegosaltworks during the past25 years,the possibilityseems unlikely, given the many very competentobservers visiting the saltworksover the years. The nearestRoyal Tern breedingcolony is on Isla Raza, Mexico, roughly 600 km south of San Diego in the Gulf of California, Mexico, where they breedin mixed groupswith ElegantTerns and Heermann'sGulls (Larusheer- manni; Walker 1965, Lindsay 1966). A portion of the populationsof all three speciesmigrates north into Californiaat the closeof each breedingseason and this site is almostcertainly the point of originof the Royal Ternswhich nested at San Diego, aswell as the San Diego ElegantTern breedingpopulation itself, as Isla Raza appearsto be the closestand largestregularly active colony. Schaffner (1982) discussedthe dependence of California Elegant Terns (bothbreeding and visiting)on E. mordax, notingthat the establishmentof the San Diego ElegantTern breedingpopulation coincided with the expansionof Engraulis stocks in southern California waters and that current seasonal movementsof California ElegantTerns and Engraulisare roughly similar. Royal Terns,however, have not followedthe sametrends as ElegantTerns in California.Although Royal and Elegantterns typicallyoccur together in San Diego Bay immediatelybefore and after the nestingseason, visiting Royal Terns occur in California relativelymore often in winter and lessoften in fall and spring,in contrastto ElegantTerns, which are more commonlyseen in the fall and the springthan in winter. What is especiallyinteresting is that the occurrenceof the Royal Tern in California has, except perhapsfor these re- cent years, decreased markedly
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