When we first started working on Great Gull Island there were about 3000 Common Terns and about the same number of Roseate Terns nesting. Between 1969 and 1979 the open areas available for terns to nest were rapidly decreasing as vegetation increased filling in areas where terns formerly nested. In 1980 we tried bulldozing certain sections of the island and this opened them for a season but the vegetation began coming in and once again the areas available for the terns were reduced. In 1980 at the suggestion of Dr. Karl Koopman in the Mammalogy Department at the American Museum of Natural History we reintroduced the Meadow Vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus, to Great Gull Island. Meadow voles are small grass eating mammals. They had lived on Great Gull Island in the last century when it was a thriving tern colony. We hoped that the voles would eat the grass opening areas for the terns.

The reintroduction was a great success. In the first year the voles underwent a population explosion and devoured most of the grass on the island, clearing large sections. The following winter they girdled all the bayberry. We took out the bayberry in the spring and the cleared areas for terns almost doubled. In the 1980's the Common Tern population increased as terns came in from other areas and nested. In the 1990's the population continued to increase, but now the increases are due primarily to young produced on the island returning to nest.

An exciting moment marking the beginning of each season is the sighting of the first tern as it flys over the island in the spring. We know that some of the terns we watch come in may have come from as far south as Argentina and southern Brazil, and flown the 5,000+ mile in as little as two or three weeks. The first birds nest about the middle of May. As the colony has increased in size the birds have become more and more synchronized in their laying. In 1999, for example over 3,000 nests were marked in four days over the Memorial Day weekend.

The work of the season begins with the laying of the first egg. From that date until the last chick hatches in early August the island is checked daily by a team of students who mark nests with numbered tongue depressors and band the chicks 22-23 days later when they hatch. During the course of the checks over the years we have made a number of discoveries about both species of terns. In the early 1970's the finding of abnormal young on check provided an early warning that industrial chemicals dumped into the environment might affect not only a wild population like the terns but could affect humans as well. The concentrations of PCB's were higher than either DDT or mercury in the abnormal young Common Terns and were high in the baitfish they were eating. Since sportfish were eating the same baitfish and humans were consuming the sportfish there was a possbility humans could be affected by the indusstrial chemicals as well.

In 1979 when there was a lot of predation in the colony a few pairs of Common Terns laid eggs while still feeding young from their first brood and one pair actually raised a young from the second brood. On a check in 1972 we discovered chicks with an odd down pattern. The parents on these nests were hybrids between Roseate and Common Terns. They both raised young successfully. In 1993 we discovered a Roseate nest where a male nested with two females. Both females contributed to the clutch, all three took part in incubating the eggs and they succeessfully raised three young.

Between 1979 and 1984 Matthew Male was in charge of our off-island banding. He took students from Great Gull Island to band in colonies on nearby islands. He did this on a daily basis throughout the season. On the islands listed below we worked to find people who could live on or near the island throughout the season and work in these areas on a daily basis.

In 1981 Jeff Spendelow took responsibility for the direction and funding of the Falkners Island Project.

Based on birds trapped both on Great Gull Island as well as in nearby colonies DiCostanzo (1980) reports that most of the birds hatched on Great Gull Island return to the colony to breed. About 1% of the young hatched on Great Gull Island were trapped on nests in nearby colonies.