82 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 76 



the Salmon River, the Tuluksak River (DNW photo), near Nyac (Mindell 

 1983), the Fog River, the Kisaralik River, the Kanektok River, Goodnews 

 Bay G)NW photo), Ilanik Lakes, Chagvan Bay (this study; D. F. Parmelee 

 and J. M. Parmelee, unpublished), the Slug River, and the Togiak River, 

 and probably nested at the Kwethluk River, the Goodnews River, and the 

 Arolik River. Terns also nested at Kagati Lake (M. J. Fry, unpublished), 

 were common along the Kanektok River (White and Boyce 1978), and 

 probably nested at Hagemeister Island (Ameson 1977). 



Inland at the Tuluksak River, the number of terns varied from 7 to 

 70 pairs over 6 years along 48 km of major streams and averaged 3 3 pairs 

 per square kilometer in riparian habitats in 1983. At the Tuluksak River 

 and along other rivers, pairs or groups of pairs nested primarily at braided 

 sections or fast flowing, rocky sections of clear streams, usually just 

 below the foothills. On the coast, a colony of about 500 pairs has 

 persisted at south Goodnews Spit since at least 1933. Another colony at 

 north Chagvan Spit had about 100 pairs nesting in 1974 but apparently 

 none in 1986; most coastal colonies had fewer than 10 pairs. 



Nest sites found inland were primarily in unvegetated gravel or 

 tailings along streams; on bare ground or in short vegetation near lakes; 

 on islands and shores of ponds; occasionally on muddy gravel areas in 

 beaver pond complexes; once on the roof of a beaver house, and once 

 in an old tree nest of a mew gull. At the Tuluksak River in 1962, one arctic 

 tern nest had pipped eggs on 1 July, and some young fledged before the 

 end of July; in 1974, large downies were present on 22 June, and the first 

 young fledged on 13 July; in 1976, some pairs had large downies on 

 22 July; in 1978, young had fledged by 20 July. In all years at the Tuluksak 

 River, terns were gone by 5- 10 August. At the upper Kisaralik River, birds 

 were present on 1 6 June 1987 (B. J. McCaffery, personal communica- 

 tion), some pairs had large downy young on 27-28 July 1979 (this study), 

 and birds were present during 10-18 August 1985 (M. Brown et al., 

 unpublished). At the Togiak River, young had fledged by 3-9 August 

 1973, but were still being fed by adults. Birds were found at the Kwethluk 

 River on 10-26 July 1985 and the Eek River on 17-27 June 1985 (M. 

 Brown et al., unpublished). 



On the coast, most tern colonies were on sand or gravel spits, and 

 most nests were located between the high water line and storm line on 

 unvegetated beach, in short discontinuous vegetation, or in dry dwarf 

 shrub mat. A nest with one egg was found on a low, dry ridge on 27 May 

 1987 at Chagvan Bay (D. F. Parmelee and J. M. Parmelee, unpublished). 

 Actual nesting chronology at South Goodnews Spit was difficult to 

 determine because of egg gathering by the people living there. On 

 13 June 1974, 9 of 1 40 scrapes had eggs (6 nests with 2 eggs and 3 nests 

 with 3 eggs); by 17-19 June most pairs were incubating; and on 17 July 

 some nests had pipping eggs and newly hatched young while other pairs 



