Common Terns courting

A pair of Common Terns courting atop netting placed on an old barge at the Shediac, New Brunswick marina where the terns have nested for many years. The operators of the marina placed the netting to prevent the terns from nesting here this year due to complaints from boaters about bird droppings on their boats, high volume of noise and their behaviour of divebombing and occasionally striking people. We (the naturalist community) are trying to convince the authorities to remove the netting to allow the terns to nest for one more year and will work with the marina to create a suitable alternate nesting habitat for the terns in 2010.