Ormond Beach, Oxnard California - 6/6/24
| Total Nests | Active Nests | Hatched Nests | Failed Nests |
Snowy Plover | 40 | 4 | 13 | 20 |
Least Tern | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
Least Terns Are Nesting
California least terns are nesting right on schedule, with our first nests found in the last days of May. Our tern "colony" is currently very small, with just five nests, compared to large colonies that can have upwards of 100 nests. However, it's still early in the least tern nesting season, and we may see more nests soon.
Below is a video from Ormond Beach of a least tern receiving a fish delivery from its mate:
Raven Problems for Plovers
Snowy plover nests have suffered significant losses over the last few weeks due to ravens that have learned to hunt for nests. Once ravens discover the search pattern for eggs they can quickly take out every nest on the beach, which is precisely what happened recently. After they deplete all the nests off the beach, we hope they will move on.
One tool we have to protect snowy plover nests are predator exclosures, which are cages placed over plover nests to "exclude" ravens but not nesting plovers. However we are hesitant to take that step. Unfortunately, these exclosures make the nesting adult a target for other predators that learn to cue in on the cage and attack the adult. As disheartening as it is to see adults lose their eggs, we would rather have the adults survive to re-nest than risk losing our breeding birds.
Below is a video from the last camera we retrieved. Many of our cameras have been stolen, but fortunately, this one was overlooked by the thief. While we would have much preferred footage of a nest hatching, at least this video confirms what happened to the nest. Often, without trail camera images, we can only guess why the eggs vanish.
We are already observing a few plover pairs attempting to re-nest, so fingers crossed these new nests succeed.
Fence Work Day
Another problem we announced a few weeks ago were ATV's that had vandalized the habitat fences and road inside the nesting areas. Today we gathered a group of volunteers and our new summer interns to help fix the fence. We know that the best solution is a fence that can't be broken, but we feel that leaving the fence vandalized is a sign of defeat.
We used a post pounder to install 30 T-posts, re-sink about 30 more posts and we restrung 500 feet of fence. Thanks team!
There is still a lot more work to do! Fence repair will probably be a regular thing we have to do for the rest of the season.
If you would like to help with future fence repair days, please contact our
volunteer coordinator Kristen at volunteer@venturaaudubon.org
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