>
> *Aqua Vista Park:* About 5 years ago, at some expense and with good
> intentions the Port of SF installed a Caspian Tern "platform" replete with
> tern decoys and audio playback (until the solar panel powering it was
> stolen about a year later). The idea was to replace the dilapidating pier
> that the terns had adopted and successfully bred at for at least a decade
> before it finally collapsed during winter storms. Unfortunately the terns
> never took a liking to the new platform having likely lost their homing
> mechanism in the two (or 3?) years between the old pier collapse and the
> new platform installation. The decoys are still there, most all listing on
> one side now.
>
>
This is very interesting! We walk by aqua vista park almost daily and I have two comments:
1. We saw scores if not a hundred terns on the platform this winter. That doesn’t seem to square with your comments about the terns abandoning the area.
2. After the terns were gone, we still noticed tern-looking shapes on the platform, so one day we finally remembered to bring our binoculars and it seemed like a dozen or so dead terns on the platform. It made us sad. I wondered if they had been struck by bird flu or something. So, I was very heartened to read your comment and learn that they were only decoys!
