Common Tern Raft: Kim Abplanalp

In 2021, a floating island or raft was constructed to provide breeding habitat for Common Terns and placed in Chincoteague Bay near Assateague Island. Originally 32′ x 32′, in 2022 the raft was expanded to 48’x48′, more than double its original size. In 2021, its pilot year, the raft had 23 nests and 22 fledglings. In 2022, there was more than a 7-fold increase with 155 nests and 153 fledglings, becoming the largest breeding colony in Maryland. The raft attracted Common Terns as a substitute for the lack of natural breeding habitat. While not an inexpensive or low effort solution, artificial islands can be an important stopgap conservation technique to provide critically needed breeding habitat while permanent natural habitat solutions are planned, permitted and implemented. Come learn the process from one of the lead researchers of the project, Kim Abplanalp from Maryland Coastal Bays near Assateague.
Kim Abplanalp is the Bird Habitat Coordinator for Maryland Coastal Bays Program. She is the lead researcher on the Common Tern Raft along Assateague Island bayside. The raft is a cooperative effort of Maryland Coastal Bays Program, The Department of Natural Resources and Audubon Mid-Atlantic. Her duties in part are to help monitor, maintain and respond to the growth of the raft and make adaptations, as well as banding both adults and chicks for tracking the colony. She is also the project photographer for Audubon, recently published in Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Kim has a B.Sc. from the University of Delaware, and a background in the behavioral study of Horseshoe crabs in Lewes, DE, for the University of Florida, which pivoted her focus to the growing needs of Colonial Waterbirds, bird migration, and the need to restore and maintain breeding habitats. An avid birder, she resides in West Ocean City, MD.
(Presented on November 9, 2023.)