Gothamist: Hoboken avian lovers want to build an artificial island for the city’s official bird
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Juan Melli
Hoboken’s honorary bird could soon get its own artificial island in the Hudson River.
Bird lovers are raising money to build a small floating island for common terns that will soon be evicted from a derelict pier on the opposite side of the river from Chelsea Piers. A pair of the pale grey, orange-beaked birds settled on the pier after Hurricane Sandy in 2013. Now, the colony at the former Shipyard Marina at Pier 11 in Hoboken has grown to around 60 terns. But the birds will soon need new nesting grounds due to workers on the $16 billion Gateway Project to build a new train tunnel beneath the Hudson River.
“Creating a floating island where they can be safe from humans and development and predators is a really great idea,” said Dustin Partridge, director of conservation and science at the NYC Bird Alliance. “It’ll be a great way to make up for some of the lost habitat that’s happened across the harbor.”
Concerned Hobokenites are raising about $5,000 to place a wooden island roughly 200 feet from shore, near the birds’ current nesting grounds.
The common tern is a threatened species in New York and listed as a species of special concern in New Jersey. Over a century ago, the common tern was close to regional extinction because its plumage was prized for women’s hats. Today, the sea swallow endures major habitat loss.
Common terns prefer to nest near water on beaches or rocky areas with little vegetation. There are a few colonies in the New York City area, including piers on Governors Island, Chimney Sweep Islands in the Bronx and beaches in the Rockaways and Breezy Point. The seabirds return to the same spot every year to breed. They’re colonial nesters, meaning they nest near each other for protection from predators.
“We don’t have many shoreline habitats left because they’ve all been developed. So abandoned piers are quite attractive to them,” Partridge said. “The problem with abandoned piers are that they often get reused at some point, so the terns can’t stay there that long because they end up getting kicked out.”
The plan, which requires state approval, is to locate the tern island on the Hoboken side of Weehawken Cove, just north of the birds’ current location. The artificial island would basically be a 24-foot-by-24-foot floating wooden dock — roughly the size of a typical Manhattan studio apartment — held in place by anchors.
“ It’s crucial to give these birds a space that no one is going to take away from them,” said Jeff Train, co-founder of the local advocacy group Our Tern. “It gives them that freedom to continue to thrive and grow.”
Luring the terns to their new home is not an easy task. Terns are much more likely to nest on an island if they see other terns already there, so organizers plan to use decoys. To make the decoys extra convincing, speakers at the island will play tern calls. Similar artificial islands have been successful in Maryland.
The black-capped seabirds also don’t like humans around their nests, and can get very aggressive. When a perceived predator is in their midst, they will dive-bomb the threat from overhead to protect their chicks. Ornithologists often wear hard hats when studying terns in the wild.
“ We kayak past these birds all the time,” Noelle Thurlow, founder of Resilience Adventures, said. “To watch them fly is like watching a miracle, unbelievable feats of dynamic flight.”
A local advocacy group, Our Tern, plans to submit a permit application to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection this spring for the artificial breeding grounds. The agency could not comment on the effort because they have not yet received a formal proposal. The project’s supporters hope to start construction by fall, so the island is ready in time for the terns’ arrival in May. The migratory birds leave the breeding grounds by the fall for warmer waters in Florida and further south. They are among the longest-range migratory birds.
In the meantime, Hoboken is celebrating with a “tern parade” — a series of events that runs until June 15. The festivities include a showcase of 40 decoys painted by Hoboken businesses and organizations. The decoys will either be auctioned off to raise money to build the island or restored for use to attract terns to the island next year.
“It’s really a story of how the Hudson River, the ecosystem is thriving and these birds really embody that when they hover over the water and splash down to catch fish,” Train said. “ We want to help our community, the rest of Hoboken to fall in love with the common tern.”