ery from Guatemala.) We decided to 
start at Guaymas on the northwest coast 
of mainland Mexico and work south, 
spot-checking estuaries all the way to 
Chiapas. On our first trip we saw no 
least terns at all. The following winter 
Alan Craig of California's Department 
of Fish and Game, and head of the 
recovery team, visited some of the areas 
we had not been able to cover and found 
a group of seventy-five least terns at an 
estuary in Colima, south of the city of 
Manzanillo. The terns, unfortunately, 
could not be approached closely enough 
for bands to be detected. 
In January 1981 we headed south 
once again, this time to concentrate on 
the Colima coast. We found a small 
number of wintering least terns at three 
estuaries south of Manzanillo. Several 
of the birds were banded, and one mem- 
orable morning we saw a color-banded 
bird at Boca de Pescuales. It was identi- 
fiable, thanks to color coding, as a Cali- 
fornia least tern, banded as a chick at 
Huntington Beach State Park in Orange 
County in 1979. 
Colima appears to be the northern 
limit of the birds' wintering range, but 
we have yet to identify the major winter- 
ing area, as we saw only twenty to thirty 
wintering least terns in Colima. Much of 
the coast of southern Mexico has not 
been searched, and the recovery of one 
bird from Guatemala suggests that the 
wintering range may extend south along 
the coast of Central America. 
Our interest in finding the wintering 
grounds is more than academic. The 
birds are being protected in California 
during the nesting season, but two- 
thirds of their year is spent elsewhere. 
under conditions about which we know 
nothing. If we are to be effective in 
protecting this migratory bird, we must 
know its entire life history, not just the 
segment that takes place on our shores. 
The goal of the recovery plan for the 
California least tern is to restore the 
breeding population to 1,200 pairs, or 
double the number in existence when 
the bird was first listed as endangered. 
With continued protection and the cre- 
ation of additional nesting sites, that 
goal could be reached within five years. 
If at that time there are viable breeding 
colonies in at least twenty different 
coastal wetlands, all permanently pro- 
tected, the birds’ recovery will have 
been accomplished, and it can then be 
considered for removal from the endan- 
gered species list. That will be cause for 
celebration. □ 
