(The Center Square) — On the shores of Pennsylvania’s sliver of Lake Erie, something has happened that hasn’t been seen for decades: common terns nesting on the beach, raising their young chicks to fledglings.
Game Commission officials are excited.
Back in the 1930s, Presque Isle State Park had 100 breeding pairs of terns at Gull Point on its east end before the population collapsed. Recent years have seen terns visit and attempt to nest, but it didn’t work out for the blue-jay sized shorebirds, which have a grayish body, black head, a red beak and legs, and a deeply forked tail.
But the last successful tern nest in Pennsylvania was in the 1960s.
With this pair, bird enthusiasts hope it’s the start of a revived
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