
Sooty Terns 
Observations were made of sooty terns on the nesting areas 
and over the runways on Sand Island and of the frequent strikes of 
this species by aircraft. There were three distinct colonies of 
this species, including about 150,000 birds, on Sand Island occupying 
a total area of 420,000 square feet. 
Harassment experiments were conducted using burning oil 
smoke, 12-gauge shotgun fire, and aircraft float lights to keep the 
birds off the ground when they were first arriving to start nesting 
activities. By these devices it was possible to keep the terns off 
the ground sufficiently to prevent them from making nests on ancestral 
sites but the program was unsuccessful in driving them from the island 
and preventing them from moving to other parts of the same island to 
nest. In view of the vast numbers of sooty terns on Sand Island, and the 
considerable amount of manpower and material expended with negative 
results it appears impractical to attempt to eliminate this species by 
this type of program. 
Wire mesh spread over the nesting area and raised slightly 
above the ground keeps sooty terns from landing, but the mechanics of 
keeping this above the ground and the cost of the material makes this 
method of control impractical. 
Black-topping the surface of the ground for water catchment 
was found to repel birds from areas where they had formerly nested. 
Where black-topping is feasible in sooty tern nesting areas next to 
runways it may effect some control of the bird problem. 
Experiments with killing sooty terns with the contact poison 
TEPP were unsuccessful because of danger to the human population if 
concentrations were incréased sufficiently to kill birds. 
During the period of observations there was an average of 
1.15 sooty terns killed per takeoff or landing without damage result- 
ing to a single plane. 
