pairs and we were hopeful, but reserved 
judgment. Censusing techniques had 
improved, new colonies were being 
found, and the increase might simply 
reflect these factors and not be real. But 
the figures kept climbing in 1978 and 
1979, and by 1980 more than nine hun- 
dred breeding pairs were counted. It is 
hearteningly apparent that protective 
measures are working. 
With the increase in population came 
a need for new nesting areas. Creation of 
nest sites is an idea still in its youth, but 
decidedly past infancy. After several 
attempts that failed, but from which 
important information was obtained, 
two successful sites were created on 
islands in salt marshes in northern Or- 
ange County. They were used by the 
terns in 1979, 1980, and 1981. In all 
cases, the beaches associated with the 
salt marshes were heavily peopled dur- 
ing the summer months and no least 
terns had nested on them for more than 
thirty years. One of the sites was an 
existing landfill in the Seal Beach Na- 
tional Wildlife Refuge in Anaheim Bay, 
connected by a narrow causeway to the 
mainland. The rough surface of the is- 
land was leveled and topped with sand, 
and pairs of papier-mache decoys were 
scattered about. One of life’s more satis- 
fying moments occurred when I saw a 
least tern land and offer a fish to a 
decoy. Soon there was a small group of 
nesting birds, and in early June 1979 the 
first chicks hatched. But as the season 
advanced, predators began to take a 
heavy toll of the chicks. By the end of 
the season the refuge managers knew 
that predator control was mandatory. In 
1980, about a month before the terns 
were due to arrive, live traps were set 
around the island and twenty-nine 
skunks, five feral cats, three red fox, and 
two opossum were removed from the 
area, indicating the magnitude of the 
problem. An electric fence was then 
installed across the causeway. The mea- 
sures proved reasonably effective 
against ground predators but no defense 
at all against birds of prey (American 
kestrels, burrowing owls, crows). Even 
though predation was a continuing prob- 
lem, forty-three pairs of terns nested in 
Anaheim Bay in 1980 and produced a 
respectable number of fledglings. 
At Venice Beach in Los Angeles an- 
other success story has unfolded during 
the past few years. In 1977, a resident of 
this beach-front community reported to 
the California Department of Fish and 
Game that several least terns nesting on 
the beach were being molested by dogs 
and people. Venice Beach is at the 
mouth of a former estuary, now almost 
totally channelized and converted into a 
marina. Once the site of a large nesting 
colony and now a heavily used bathing 
beach, Venice had not been used by the 
terns since the early 1960s. Concerted 
action by several agencies, prodded by 
concerned citizens of Venice, resulted in 
the erection of protective fencing 
around the few hardy pairs that were 
attempting to nest on the beach. The 
birds’ response was immediate, and by 
the end of the 1 977 season there were 35 
pairs. The terns came back and nesting 
was successful the following year. (It 
has been our experience that if the terns 
succeed in hatching chicks they will 
usually return the next year, even if 
none of the chicks survive to fledge.) 
The colony has grown with giant steps 
A male presents the small fish he 
has caught to his mate sitting in 
a nest scrape, below. The adult 
bird, right, is incubating a clutch 
of eggs at a nesting site on the 
coast of California. 
