![]() Could the parents have found their babies? Stranger things have happened. Bird Rescue staff and volunteers where thrilled when they saw adult terns, with fish in their mouths, flying above the cages that housed the chicks. Fortunately, these babies were at the best wildlife rescue center in California and they did survive, and thrive. Terns are incredibly attentive parents who feed their young for many months while also teaching them how to fish. Without their parents, baby terns are most certainly at a disadvantage and it was unknown whether they could be raised in captivity and released back to the wild. Would the baby terns survive in captivity? Surviving Elegant Terns before being released from San Pedro bird center. (Migratory birds are protected by both state and federal laws and animal cruelty is a felony in California.) News crews recorded the crime scene while USFWS and California Department of Fish & Game began investigating. The cold, wet and hungry survivors were rushed back to the center while other responders counted and collected every body as evidence. It was a tragic and heartbreaking ending to what had become a thrilling sight for everyone who saw the thriving colony. Bird Rescue staff and veterinarians who responded to the grizzly scene found only nine elegant and 15 Caspian tern chicks still alive among the hundreds of dead and dying. Dead baby terns lay on the beach like trash. One barge, and then the other, had been cleaned of all the terns – the colonies were completely destroyed. Biologists, bird lovers and kids learning about nature were thrilled by the sight and the viewing the colonies became the high point of Long Beach harbor cruise tours.īut on things turned tragic on Wednesday, and Friday, June 28, and June 30 – when 911 calls came into Bird Rescue’s San Pedro Center. News of the rare colony spread quickly and stories began appearing in newspaper, television and birder blogs. The barges quickly became covered with thousands of the beautiful white birds nesting, incubating and feeding their young. The colony was the northernmost breeding colony in the world and the first recorded colony established on barges. Our rescue story begins in the spring of 2006 as adult Caspian and Elegant terns began nesting on two empty barges anchored in the Long Beach Harbor. Photo: Jay Holcomb – International Bird RescueĪfter nearly 6 weeks in care, rescued Elegant and Caspian Terns have been returned to the wild. Caspian Terns, with green marking for study purposes, get ready to be released at the Salton Sea.
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