accounted for two-thirds of all bird sightings in the survey (66.4% in August and 64.9% in 

 November), but the composition of tern species was markedly different. During August 

 pale terns (all that were identified to species were royal terns) accounted for 42.6% of 

 all bird sightings, while dark terns (mostly black terns but a few sooty and bridled tern 

 sightings) accounted for 23.8%. In contrast, dark terns accounted for only 1.0% of 

 November sightings and pale terns accounted for 63.9%. Gulls accounted for 23.6% of 

 the November sightings and only 5.7% in August, reflecting the influx of herring gulls 

 from the northern United States and Canada. The August survey found a variety of non- 

 breeding summer visitors, including shearwaters, boobies, storm-petrels, and a tropicbird, 

 which were not present in November. 



Birds in NTEX 



The frequencies of bird sightings in NTEX are presented in Table 12. Terns 

 accounted for 75.8% of all sightings in August but for only 34.5% of the November 

 sightings. Dark terns were rare in both surveys (3.4% in August, 1.1% in November); 

 therefore, the decrease was primarily in the frequency of sightings of royal and 

 unidentified pale terns. Herring gulls were absent in August but accounted for 43.7% of 

 the November bird sightings. Shearwaters, storm-petrels, boobies, and magnificent 

 frigatebirds were sighted during August but not November. One group of ducks was 

 observed during November. 



Birds in NFLA 



The frequencies of bird sightings in NFLA are presented in Table 13. There was a 

 conspicuous increase in the number of royal terns sighted during November (64.4% of the 

 bird fauna) in relation to August (30.2%). The number of brown pelicans seen was stable 

 between the two surveys, but in November brown pelicans composed 9.2% of the bird 

 fauna as compared to 17.9% in August. Frigatebirds were seldom seen in November in 

 relation to the August survey. Laughing gulls were more frequently sighted in November 

 with all gull species accounting for 12.1% of the November sightings. Dark terns were not 

 sighted in November whereas nine groups were recorded in August. 



Birds in SFLA 



Table 14 presents relative frequencies of birds in the SFLA survey subunit. Royal 

 terns were more commonly sighted in November than in August: they accounted for 

 17.8% and 69.5% of the bird sightings in August and November, respectively. Brown 

 pelicans and laughing gulls showed a similar but less pronounced increase in November. 

 Common group, least, sooty, and bridled terns were present in August but were not 

 sighted in November. Cory's shearwaters and Sandwich terns were seen in low numbers 

 during both months. 



Turtles in Texas and Florida 



The frequency of sightings of marine turtles in Florida greatly exceeded that in 

 Texas (Table 15). Of all turtle sightings 97.3% were in Florida survey subunits and 2.7% 

 were in Texas. The total number of turtles seen in August (182) exceeds the total for 

 November (80). Turtles were approximately equal in abundance in NFLA and SFLA, with 

 reductions during November surveys of slightly under 50% in relation to August surveys 

 (Table 16). Leatherback turtles were sighted in Florida during both August and 



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