Elegant terns make their home at small Mission Bay island

On a summer afternoon joggers, bicyclists and several people with big-brimmed hats, a few looking through binoculars, focused their attention on the squawking and seemingly chaotic swarm of white birds flying over a crescent-shaped island in Mission Bay.

The social frenzy was thousands of elegant terns teaching their fledglings how to fly and forage at a man-made piece of land known as West Ski Island that lies less than a quarter-mile from Crown Point Park.

A few women stopped to ask Andrew Meyer, the director of conservation at San Diego Audubon Society, and Cristina Santa Maria, conservation manager for the group, about the flock.

“There were over 8,000 nesting pairs of elegant terns on the island this year,” Meyer said. That means more than 16,000 adults – not including the fledglings born – representing a quarter of their population worldwide.

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