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First Record of Common Terns Nesting in Illinois 
For the last several years Common Terns have been seen about 
Waukegan in July, but apparently no one reported a nest. 
In 1985 I visited the pond in the Public Service Grounds beside 
Lake Michigan with the Yard Superintendent, Mr. Arthur Heim. As 
we approached the lake shore a Common Tern suddenly scolded, then 
another. We searched the shore and nearby vicinity but found no nest. 
At one time six terns were scolding. Mr. Heim told me that they had 
nested there some time before. Since he described the nest as being 
hardly a nest at all, just a hollow in the sand, and mentioned that the 
down on the heads of the young birds is of different shades of color, 
some yellowish and some brown, I was convinced that he was right. 
As soon as I was home from the 1936 banding trip I went to the 
pond. Before I reached the shore a Common Tern was scolding. It 
was soon joined by others until there were twenty-five in the air, all 
scolding. I stood still and soon saw a bird with a fish and watched it 
with my binoculars until the fish was fed to a young bird. Upon going 
to the spot I had a good look at the first young Common Tern on record 
in Illinois. Then I saw another, and a nest with eggs. There was a 
bunch of feathers where one recently had been killed and eaten. Cat 
Photographs by W. I. Lyon. 
Eggs and Young of Common Tern at Waukegan, Illinois, July 19, 1936. 
tracks led from the spot to a rock pile. I rushed home for bands, the 
camera, and also a gun. On the way back I got Mr. Heim and some 
others to come and help. We soon found our birds and I photographed 
and then banded them. We found four nests with eggs, one nest had 
three. About that time we heard the gun. The boys claimed they had 
shot an animal in the rock pile. 
When I went back two weeks later the terns had gone. The three 
eggs in the nest mentioned above had not hatched so I took them for 
the collection of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. 
WILLIAM I. LYON, Waukegan. 
