SCIENCE areamore closely, and quickly locat- ed a downy Bridled Tern chick crouched under one of the rocks which was usedas a perchby the BRIDLEDTERN adult. We have accumulated addi- tionalrecords of nestingat thissite in subsequentyears. BREEDING BridledTerns breed throughout the Bahamas and the Greater and LesserAntilles, and occur commonly offshoreFlorida and regularlyoff RECORDIN THE other southeasternstates, but this is thefirst evidence of breedingreport- edfor NorthAmerica north of Quin- UNITEDSTATES tana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula (Howell et al. i99o). In this note we describe the islet, the Roseate Tern colony,and the BridledTern nest byPyne Hoffman, site,and compare the nesting habitat of these terns to that used in the Ba- AlexanderSprunt IV, hamas. The FloridaKeys are flankedto PeterKalla, and Mark Robson the eastand south by a line of coral reefsparalleling the main keysat a distance of 6 to i2 kilometers. The best-developed(and some of the On themorning of July •5, •987, two Terns(Sterna anaethetus) flying low shallowest)reefs occur along the reef of us(Sprunt and Hoffman) visited a overthe colony.One of theseterns margin,adjacent to thedeep water of RoseateTern (Sterna dougallih colony sat for extendedperiods on coral the FloridaStraits. The tern colony on a small coral rubble islet on Peli- rocksin the northeasternpart of the occupiesan isletof approximately canShoal, south of BocaChica Key, isletand circled, calling softly when one-fourthhectare composed of coral MonroeCounty, Florida. During in- we approached.We returnedto the rubble and sand located on a shallow spectionwe observedfour Bridled island that afternoon to examine the sectionof the fringingreef called

Bridled Tern on Pelican Shoal.

Volume 47, Number 3' 379 PelicanShoal, at 24ø3O.i'N, 8•ø37. deepwater), and west along the reef bare rocky substratefavored by 9' w, andapproximately 8 kilometers margin.They also fed in smallflocks RoseateTerns. The colonysite was south-southeastof Boca Chica Key. It next to the island, when jacks protectedfrom direct disturbance rises to a maximum of about one me- (Caranxsp.) and tarpon(MegMops but failedcompletely, for tmknmvn ter abovethe visible high-water line. atlanticus)forced abundant school- reasons. Bridled Terns xvere not m- Thehighest spots lie on a bermalong ing minnows(probably silversides, ported on TankIsland. In •989,after the south and south•vestmargins. Atherinornorusstipes) to the surface. •veplaced protective signs on Pelican The moreprotected northern margin One BridledTern joined a œewof Shoal, RoseateTerns returned, and is backedby lowerberms. In I987, these flocks but •vas not seen to feed. havenested annually since. Pelican fourspecies of plantsoccupied about This is the largestRoseate Tern Shoal•vas designated by the Florida one-half of the islet's surface. Sea colonyknown in Florida,and one of Game and FreshxvaterFish Commis- Putslane(Sesuviurn portulacastrum) the largestknown in the Caribbean sion as a unit of the state's Critical occurredin four largeand several basin. About IO adult Least Terns WildlifeArea program in JulyI99O, small patches,and accountedfor (Sternaantillarurn) were present, as andis nmv closed to trespassersfrom mostof the areacovered. Sandspurs well as several flying young, so they Aprili to SeptemberI, annually. (Cenchrussp.) formed smaller patch- mayhave bred in thecolony. During The Bridled Tern chick found in es and invaded some of the Sesuviurn the morningabout IZO Sooty Terns •987xvas in the interiorof a depres- mats. Several bushes of Sea Lavender (Sternafuscata),in groups of up to •5 sionabout two meters long and up to (Mallatonia [•urne•brtia] gnapha- birds,visited the colony.They were two meters •vide behind the lmv loides)grew in theinterior of theis- travelingalong the reef margin from berm on the northeast side of the land,and a singleplant of SeaOats eastto west,and as they approached, islet. The depression•vas filled •vith (Uniola paniculata)grew on the changedcourse and flew over the is- loosecoral rubble, and •vas complete- south•vestern berm. land,often circling once or twicebe- ly devoidof vegetation.The chick In I987, the colony contained forecontinuing west. None was seen crouchedin a largecavity under a about3o0 pairs of RoseateTerns. Ap- to land, and no evidencewas seenof pieceof coralrock about 60 centime- proximately50 nests•vith eggsre- SootyTern nesting. terslong and xveighing several kilo- mainedJuly •5, mostlyin the Sesuvi- We returned to Pelican shoal in grams.No remnantsof a nestplat- urn mats. About zo% of these had JuneT988, but foundthe isletdesert- formor scrapexvere seen, and as the two-eggclutches, and the remainder ed.We found several fire pits, numer- chickappeared to be at leastseveral containedsingle eggs. Numerous ous.zz calibershell casings and a few daysold, it mayhave moved from the downyand partlyleathered chicks spentshotgun shells, and other evi- actualnest site. In I99O, Kalla and hid amongthe rocks and the vegeta- dence of extensive human distur- Robsonobserved two pairsof Bri- tion. Fiftyto sixtydependent flying bance. The Roseate Terns had moved dledTerns incubating in the colony youngwere also present, and we ob- to TankIsland, in KeyWest Harbor, June•z. On July9, theyagain sa•v servedtwo of these leavingthe wherethey •vcre nesting •vith Least two pairs,and found one unhatched colony,following adults out to sea. Terns.This islandrcccndy had been eggnear a perch-siteof one of the Adult RoseateTerns followed flight clearedof vegetationin preparationpairs. The birdsand nests xvere locat- linesto the southand southwest (into for development,and providedthe ed in the samegeneral area as the chickfound in I987. They returned May 3o, I99•, and observedthree pairsof BridledTerns on the islet, but did not seenests. On May zS,i99z, Robson returned and observed one pair of BridledTerns present. By I99Z,the islet had been substantially rearrangedby xvave action, and most of the vegetationwas gone, but the islet•vas still high enough to provide nestingsites. The nearestbreeding records of BridledTerns are from the Cay Sal Bankof theBahamas, approximately no kilometers to the southeast

BridledTern at nestingsite on PelicanShoal, Florida, in July1987. (Sprunt•984). BreedingSooty, Bri-

380- American Birds, Fall 1993 died,and Roseate terns, along with thewest, have large colonies of Sooty L EC ROY,M. 1976.Bird observationsin Los Brown Noddies and Audubon's Terns and Brown Noddies, and often Roques,Venezuela. Amer. Mus. Novitates. No. z599.30 pp. Shearwatersfrom thesecolonies, can have a colony of RoseateTerns ROBERTSON,W.B. 1978.Roseate Tern. Pp. frequentlybe found feeding over the (Robertsonx978). The nestinghabi- 39-40In H.W. Kaleed. Rare and endan- waters of the Florida Straits south of tat on BushKey and Long Key seems geredbiota of FloridaVol. z: Birds. theFlorida Keys. The BridledTern is suitablefor Bridled Terns, but adult SPRUNTA., IV. 1984.The statusand conser- thespecies most ofien seen dose in to BridledTerns are rarely observed in vation of seabirds of the Bahama Islands. theDry Tortugas. pp.157-168 In Croxall,J.E etal. eds. Status the fringingreef and indeed inside and Conservation of the World's Seabirds. the reef line at times. Literature Cited I.C.B.P. Tech. Publ. No.z. BridledTerns breed throughout the HOWELL, S.N.G., S. WEBB, and B. M. DE Bahamasas singlepairs, in small MONTES. 1990.Notes on TropicalTerns colonies,or in largermixed colonies in Mexico.Am. Birds44:381-383. with Sootyor Roseateterns, or Brown Noddies. Bridled Tern nest sitesare difficult to locateas they areusually in solutionholes in the Ca ture .s_ limestonerocks or underlarge slabsof limestonepiled up by •-= heavywave action (Sprunt •984). LeCroy 0976) found Bridled Ternsnesting in similarcoral rub- blesites on theLos Roques Island off the northern shore of Vene- zuela.It isprobable that the species wouldnest along the Keys regular- .lyif suitablehabitat existed. In thepast, several other rub- bleislets have been formed along the reefmargin. These rubble isletsare relatively temporary fea- tures,persisting for a fewdecades to perhapsa few centuries. They form when a fortuitous combina- tion of abundantrubble and ap- TSN-3 and TSN4 Shown propriatewave action occurs on a veryshallow reef. At present,the PelicanShoal islet is the only one ' - • HighPerformance Sefi•s highenough to supporta bird '• .•-•'SN-1,45ø Offset, Multi-coated ._. TSN-2, Straight,Multi-coated colony.Prior to thehurricanes of TSN-3, 45 o Offset, Multi-coatedFluorite Lens x96oand x965, an islet called Mo- TSN-4, Straight,Multi-coated Fluorite Lens lassesReef Dry Rocksexisted off KeyLargo, about x5o kilometers The Kowa Prominar.super high and increasedlight gathering to the northeast, and Bridled performancefluorite 77ramlens capabilitiesof no lessthan 60% over conventional 60ram Ternswere observed by Sprunt offers a sharperimage, wider than usual field of view perchingon rocksthere, but no spottingscopes. searchfor nesting was instituted. Prominar Features An islet similar to Pelican Shoal existedon LooeKey reef at least ß High clarity,high resolution, ß High qualityphoto application fromthe eighteenth century into multi-coatedfluorite lens. (optional) theearly twentieth century before ß Bayonetmounting for easy ß Seveninterchangeable eyepieces. erodingaway, and may have pro- eyepieceexchange. vidednesting habitat for Roseate andBridled terns. The Dry Tor- KOWA OPTIMED INC. 20001 S. VERMONT AVE., TORRANCE, CA 90502 (310) 327-1913 tugas,roughly x3o kilometers to

Volume 47, Number 3- •1