Experimental measurement of nesting substrate preference in Caspian terns, Sterna caspia, and the successful colonisation of human constructed islands

Caspian terns, Sterna caspia, recently bred in Hamilton Harbour, at the western end of Lake Ontario, on private property that is likely to be developed in the next decade. To reduce this land-use conflict and to promote the current level of biodiversity of colonial nesters in the area, artificial islands were built in the winter of 1995–1996 with different areas designated for a variety of nesting waterbirds including Caspian terns. In 1994, …