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Dynamics, and Metal Levels
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A FOOD CHAIN APPROACH

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Habitat, Population
Dynamics, and Metal Levels
in Colonial Waterbirds
A FOOD CHAIN APPROACH

JOANNA BURGER
MICHAEL GOCHFELD

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Dedication

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We dedicate this book to Fred Lesser, who was completely devoted
to helping us study the birds of Barnegat Bay for 40 years,
to all our students who provide hope for the future study and
conservation of colonial waterbirds, and to the international
team of shorebird biologists who migrate to Delaware Bay
each year to help unravel the biology of shorebirds.

Fred Lesser in the field with an Egret Chick.

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And to the students who are carrying on the research and conservation work with colonial birds.
From left to right in top row: Brian Palestis, Joanna Burger, Steve Garber.
Front row: Taryn Pittfield, Nellie Tsipoura, Susan Elbin, Carl Safina, Sheila Shukla,
Christian Jeitner.


The international team of shorebird biologists.

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Contents
Foreword.........................................................................................................................................xvii
Preface by Joanna Burger................................................................................................................xix
Preface by Michael Gochfeld...........................................................................................................xxi
Acknowledgments......................................................................................................................... xxiii
Authors..........................................................................................................................................xxvii

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Part I

Introduction to Barnegat Bay and Northeast Estuaries
Chapter 1
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
Objectives of This Book.................................................................................................................8
Biomonitoring and Bioindicators................................................................................................. 10
Using Colonial Waterbirds as Bioindicators and Sentinels.......................................................... 17
Habitat Diversity and Changes..................................................................................................... 21
Environmental Contaminants......................................................................................................24
Human Dimensions......................................................................................................................25
Barnegat Bay as a Microcosm................................................................................................. 27
How People and Biota Use the Bay......................................................................................... 27
How People Have Changed the Ecosystem of the Bay........................................................... 29
How the Physical and Biological Aspects of the Bay Have Influenced People...................... 30
How People Perceive the Bay and Want to See Changes........................................................ 35
How Perceptions Influence Management and Public Policy................................................... 35
Summary and Conclusions.......................................................................................................... 37
Chapter 2
Barnegat Bay and Other Northeast Estuaries................................................................................... 39
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 39
National Estuary Program........................................................................................................... 39
Water Quality Index................................................................................................................40
Sediment Quality Index.......................................................................................................... 45
Quality Index Comparisons.................................................................................................... 45
Ecoregions....................................................................................................................................46
Barnegat Bay Ecosystem..............................................................................................................46
Massachusetts Bays and Boston Harbor...................................................................................... 53
Buzzards Bay and Nearby Waters................................................................................................ 54
Long Island Sound and Peconic Bay........................................................................................... 55
New York–New Jersey Harbor..................................................................................................... 59
Pollution Prevention and Industrial Ecology in the New York–New Jersey Harbor.............. 61

Delaware Bay Estuary.................................................................................................................. 62
Chesapeake Bay...........................................................................................................................66
Summary and Conclusions.......................................................................................................... 69

ix


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Contents

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Chapter 3
Species, Methods, and Approaches.................................................................................................. 71
Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 71
Ethical Issues in Field Studies..................................................................................................... 73
Conservation Status Definitions................................................................................................... 73
Taxonomy and Nomenclature...................................................................................................... 73
Primary Species Descriptions...................................................................................................... 77
Great Egret (Egretta alba)....................................................................................................... 77
Snowy Egret (Egretta thula).................................................................................................... 78
Black-Crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)............................................................ 78
Great Black-Backed Gull (Larus marinus)............................................................................. 79
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus smithsonianus)....................................................................80
Laughing Gull (Larus atricilla; Now Placed in Genus Leucophaeus)...................................80
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo).............................................................................................. 81
Forster’s Tern (Sterna forsteri)................................................................................................ 82
Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii).............................................................................................. 82

Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger)........................................................................................... 82
Red Knot (Calidris canutus)...................................................................................................84
Secondary Species Descriptions..................................................................................................84
Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis).................................................................................84
Double-Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).............................................................84
Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea)...................................................................................... 85
Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)......................................................................................... 85
Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)............................................................................................ 85
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).................................................................................................... 85
Clapper Rail (Rallus longirostris)........................................................................................... 87
American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus)................................................................... 88
Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)....................................................................................... 88
Willet (Tringa semipalmata)................................................................................................... 88
Least Tern (Sternula antillarum)............................................................................................ 89
Barnegat Bay Methods................................................................................................................. 89
Habitat Availability, Use, and Selection.................................................................................. 91
Population Numbers................................................................................................................ 93
Collection of Data from Other Bays and Estuaries......................................................................94
Collection of Samples for Metal Analysis................................................................................... 95
Biomonitoring Metals in Eggs................................................................................................97
Biomonitoring Metals in Feathers...........................................................................................97
Tissue Samples........................................................................................................................ 98
Metal Analysis............................................................................................................................. 98
Analysis of Eggs.................................................................................................................... 100
Analysis of Feathers.............................................................................................................. 101
Organs and Tissues............................................................................................................... 101
Statistical Analysis..................................................................................................................... 101
Statistical Considerations...................................................................................................... 102
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 103

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Contents

xi

Part II
Habitat and Populations Dynamics

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Chapter 4
Habitat............................................................................................................................................. 107
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 107
Habitat Loss............................................................................................................................... 108
Habitat and Activity................................................................................................................... 112
Available Habitat and Suitable Habitat...................................................................................... 113
Habitat Selection........................................................................................................................ 115
Coloniality.................................................................................................................................. 116
Factors Affecting Colony and Nest Site Selection..................................................................... 117
Habitat Stability.................................................................................................................... 118
Conspecifics and Other Species............................................................................................ 118
Competition........................................................................................................................... 120
Predators................................................................................................................................ 121
Flooding/Severe Storms........................................................................................................ 122
Human Activities................................................................................................................... 125
Reproductive Success............................................................................................................ 126
Temporal, Horizontal, and Vertical Stratification...................................................................... 126
Temporal Stratification.......................................................................................................... 127

Horizontal Stratification........................................................................................................ 130
Vertical Stratification............................................................................................................ 132
Foraging..................................................................................................................................... 134
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 138
Chapter 5
Population Trends of Colonial Waterbirds in Barnegat Bay........................................................... 139
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 139
Barnegat Bay Colonies............................................................................................................... 142
Sandy Beach Habitats................................................................................................................ 142
Spatial Variation......................................................................................................................... 144
Temporal Trends........................................................................................................................ 148
Black Skimmers.................................................................................................................... 148
Common Terns...................................................................................................................... 153
Forster’s Terns....................................................................................................................... 155
Great Black-Backed Gull and Herring Gulls........................................................................ 156
Laughing Gulls...................................................................................................................... 159
Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Black-Crowned Night-Herons.......................................... 160
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 162
Chapter 6
Population Trends of Colonial Waterbirds in Other Northeast Bays.............................................. 165
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 165
Massachusetts Bays and the Region........................................................................................... 166


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xii

Contents

Buzzards Bay............................................................................................................................. 169
Long Island Sound..................................................................................................................... 169
New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary..................................................................................... 169
Delaware Bay............................................................................................................................. 175
Heronries............................................................................................................................... 176
Shorebirds.............................................................................................................................. 178
Chesapeake Bay......................................................................................................................... 186
Discussion.................................................................................................................................. 189
Birds of North America Accounts......................................................................................... 189
Other Analyses...................................................................................................................... 191
Role of Reproductive Success............................................................................................... 192
Comparisons among Species in the Northeast Bays and Estuaries...................................... 193
Increasing Trends............................................................................................................. 194
Decreasing Trends............................................................................................................ 194
Variable Trends................................................................................................................. 195
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 196
Chapter 7
Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, and Suitable Nesting and Foraging Habitat............................. 197
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 197
Environmental Effects of Global Warming and Sea Level Rise on Coastal Habitats............... 199
Climate Change and Nonavian Species.....................................................................................202
Climate Change Effects on Birds............................................................................................... 203
Effects on Noncoastal Species..............................................................................................203
Effects on Seabirds................................................................................................................204
Effects on Shorebirds............................................................................................................206
Available Habitat and Changes in Barnegat Bay.......................................................................209
Policies and Perceptions of Sea Level Rise...........................................................................209
Nesting Birds in Barnegat Bay as a Case Study.................................................................... 210
Colony Site Selection in Common Terns.............................................................................. 214
Sea Level Rise and Avian Responses in Barnegat Bay.............................................................. 217

Foraging Birds in Bays and Estuaries........................................................................................ 222
Implications for Future Populations...........................................................................................224
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 225
Part III
Metals
Chapter 8
Overview of Ecotoxicology for Birds............................................................................................. 229
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 229
Background on Organic and Inorganic Pollutants..................................................................... 231
Organic Compounds.............................................................................................................. 231
Inorganic Compounds and Metals........................................................................................ 232
General Principles Affecting Metals in the Environment......................................................... 232
Sources of Metals.................................................................................................................. 233
Mixtures................................................................................................................................ 234
Beneficial Uses of Metal Toxicity......................................................................................... 234


Contents

xiii

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Exposure Assessment and Toxicokinetics................................................................................. 234
Fate and Transport................................................................................................................. 235
Toxic Effects of Metals and Toxicodynamics............................................................................ 237
Mechanisms of Toxicity........................................................................................................ 238
No Effect Levels, Effect Levels, and Lethal Doses.............................................................. 238
Vulnerability and Susceptibility............................................................................................240
Tolerance: Adaptation and Evolution.................................................................................... 241

Establishing Causation of Toxic Effects.................................................................................... 241
Detecting an Event: Is Something Happening Out of the Ordinary?................................... 242
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 243
Chapter 9
Effects of Metals in Birds............................................................................................................... 245
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 245
Choice of Metals and Metalloids to Study............................................................................246
Lead............................................................................................................................................246
Toxicity Effects Levels.......................................................................................................... 247
Our Laboratory Experiments with Lead in Young Terns and Gulls.....................................248
Our Neurobehavioral Test Battery........................................................................................ 250
Neurobehavioral Development in the Field........................................................................... 253
Lead in Feathers of Experimental Birds: Recalculating an Effect Level............................. 255
Mechanisms of Developmental Delay................................................................................... 256
Mercury...................................................................................................................................... 256
Biomethylation and Bioamplification of Mercury................................................................. 256
Methylmercury versus Total Mercury................................................................................... 257
Mercury in Feathers and Eggs.............................................................................................. 258
Mercury Toxicity to Birds..................................................................................................... 259
Effects Levels for Mercury in Birds...................................................................................... 261
Studies of Mercury in Eggs................................................................................................... 262
Developmental Defects......................................................................................................... 263
Mercury Effects in Songbirds of Terrestrial Ecosystems.....................................................264
Mercury Studies in Florida Egrets and Ibis.......................................................................... 265
Mercury in Herons in Nevada............................................................................................... 267
Cadmium.................................................................................................................................... 268
Cadmium Levels in Birds...................................................................................................... 268
Effects Levels........................................................................................................................ 269
Biomonitoring for Cadmium with Feathers and Eggs.......................................................... 270
Selenium..................................................................................................................................... 270

Teratogenesis......................................................................................................................... 271
Selenium Poisoning of Birds in California........................................................................... 271
Effects Levels for Selenium.................................................................................................. 271
Manganese................................................................................................................................. 272
Chromium.................................................................................................................................. 273
Arsenic....................................................................................................................................... 273
Arsenical Feed Additives...................................................................................................... 274
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 275
Appendix.................................................................................................................................... 275


xiv

Contents

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Chapter 10
Heavy Metals in Fish, Lower Trophic Levels, and Passerine Birds............................................... 277
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 277
Lower Trophic Levels................................................................................................................ 277
Horseshoe Crabs........................................................................................................................ 278
Horseshoe Crabs as Bioindicators......................................................................................... 278
Natural History...................................................................................................................... 279
Atlantic Coast Patterns in Metal Levels................................................................................ 282
Temporal Patterns in Delaware Bay......................................................................................284
Spatial Patterns in Delaware Bay.......................................................................................... 285
Importance and Implications of Metals in Crabs.................................................................. 287
Fish as Bioindicators.................................................................................................................. 291
Natural History Background...................................................................................................... 291

Prey Fish.................................................................................................................................... 293
Species Comparison for Fish Brought to Nests to Feed Chicks........................................... 293
Spatial Comparison of Metal Levels within Barnegat Bay................................................... 298
Comparison of Prey Fish from Raritan Bay (New York–New Jersey Harbor)
and Barnegat Bay.................................................................................................................. 298
Importance of Metal Levels in Prey Fish to Fish Themselves and Avian Predators............ 299
Finfish......................................................................................................................................... 303
Species Comparisons for Metal Levels in Fish from New Jersey......................................... 303
Seasonal Patterns for Indicator Finfish from Barnegat Bay.................................................. 305
Spatial Comparisons for Indicator Finfish from New York–New Jersey Harbor
to Delaware Bay.................................................................................................................... 305
Importance of Metal Levels to the Fish Themselves and to Higher Tropic Levels..............307
Passerines...................................................................................................................................309
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 310
Chapter 11
Heavy Metal Levels in Terns and Black Skimmers........................................................................ 311
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 311
Common Terns........................................................................................................................... 314
Barnegat Bay Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 315
Barnegat Bay Feather Patterns.............................................................................................. 317
Other Northeast Bays and Other Locations.......................................................................... 321
Forster’s Tern.............................................................................................................................. 329
Barnegat Bay Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 329
Barnegat Bay Feather Patterns.............................................................................................. 332
Other Northeast Bays and Other Regions............................................................................. 332
Roseate Terns............................................................................................................................. 332
Roseate Tern Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 332
Roseate Tern Feather Patterns............................................................................................... 336
Black Skimmers......................................................................................................................... 338
Barnegat Bay Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 338

Barnegat Bay—Feather Patterns........................................................................................... 338
Discussion..................................................................................................................................344
Temporal Patterns in Terns...................................................................................................344
Locational Differences in Eggs of Common Terns............................................................... 348


Contents

xv

Interspecies Comparisons..................................................................................................... 349
Comparisons of Levels from Other Northeast Bays and Regions........................................ 350
Effects Levels........................................................................................................................ 351
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 353

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Chapter 12
Heavy Metal Levels in Gulls.......................................................................................................... 361
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 361
Great Black-Backed Gull........................................................................................................... 361
Barnegat Bay Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 363
Barnegat Bay Feather Patterns.............................................................................................. 363
Other Northeast Bays............................................................................................................ 363
Herring Gull............................................................................................................................... 363
Barnegat Bay Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 366
Barnegat Bay Feather Patterns.............................................................................................. 366
Other Northeast Bays and Elsewhere.................................................................................... 367
Laughing Gull............................................................................................................................ 372
Barnegat Bay Egg Patterns.................................................................................................... 373

Barnegat Bay Feather Patterns.............................................................................................. 374
Other Northeast Bays............................................................................................................ 374
Discussion.................................................................................................................................. 378
Temporal Patterns................................................................................................................. 378
Locational Differences within Barnegat Bay........................................................................ 382
Trophic Level Relationships.................................................................................................. 382
Comparisons with Other Regions......................................................................................... 383
Potential Effects.................................................................................................................... 384
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 386
Appendix.................................................................................................................................... 387
Chapter 13
Heavy Metal Levels in Herons, Egrets, Night-Herons, and Ibises................................................. 391
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 391
Great Egret................................................................................................................................. 393
Egg and Feather Patterns from Barnegat Bay....................................................................... 395
Other Northeast Bays and Other Locations.......................................................................... 396
Snowy Egret............................................................................................................................... 399
Egg and Feather Patterns from Barnegat Bay.......................................................................400
Other Northeast Bays and Other Locations.......................................................................... 401
Black-Crowned Night-Heron.....................................................................................................404
Egg and Feather Patterns from Barnegat Bay.......................................................................405
Other Northeast Bays and Other Locations..........................................................................407
Other Species............................................................................................................................. 411
Discussion.................................................................................................................................. 411
Temporal Patterns of Metals in Ardeids............................................................................... 411
Trophic Level Relationships.................................................................................................. 415
Comparisons of Levels with Other Regions.......................................................................... 416
Effects Levels........................................................................................................................ 419
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 420
Appendix.................................................................................................................................... 421

xvi

Contents

Part IV
Implications, Conclusions, and the Future

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Chapter 14
Heavy Metals, Trophic Levels, Food Chains, and Future Risks.................................................... 427
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 427
Effects Levels and Individual Variation.................................................................................... 427
Levels in Feathers Associated with Effects............................................................................... 429
Levels in Eggs Associated with Effects..................................................................................... 434
Building Food Chains................................................................................................................ 437
Implications for People.............................................................................................................. 438
Human Exposure to Mercury from Fish.................................................................................... 441
Lessons Learned........................................................................................................................ 445
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................448
Appendix....................................................................................................................................449
Chapter 15
Colonial Waterbirds—The Future.................................................................................................. 453
Introduction................................................................................................................................ 453
Current Status of Waterbird Populations in Northeast Bays...................................................... 456
Indices of Vulnerability and Risks of Species........................................................................... 456
Habitat, Populations, and Risk.............................................................................................. 459
Metals and Risks...................................................................................................................460

Management and Control of Risk......................................................................................... 462
Recovery, Resiliency, and Adaptations...................................................................................... 462
Avian Options........................................................................................................................464
Management Options: Building an Ecological Ark..............................................................466
Restoration Examples for Northeast Estuaries...................................................................... 471
Summary and Conclusions........................................................................................................ 475
Color Images................................................................................................................................... 479
References....................................................................................................................................... 487
Index............................................................................................................................................... 545


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Foreword
Although I have worked on every continent and in every ocean, many of my most precious
memories are in the coastal bays of my youth, including Barnegat Bay. It was on Barnegat’s shores
and marshes that I watched some of the East Coast’s last Ospreys survive through the DDT era
and raise their young (they are now abundant), worked as a college student to reintroduce some of
the first captive-raised Peregrine Falcons (they had disappeared, but are again common), heard my
first Whip-poor-wills (they are vanishing), weathered awe-inspiring, sometimes terrifying summer
lightning storms, caught crabs, gathered clams, fished, and encountered some of the most memorable and momentous people in my life. I soon found myself in a boat with Fred Lesser, Joanna
Burger, and Michael Gochfeld, counting tern and skimmer nests on salt marsh islands under the
bay’s wide-open sky. For those coming-of-age experiences, Barnegat Bay was a vast, magical place.
I feel lucky to have had them and been there. I am thankful to all those who afforded me the opportunities to contribute what little skill I had. Having been repaid with such precious memories, it is
clear that I got by far the better deal. But I hope I have since, in the wider world, lived up to the
investment that Barnegat Bay and some special people made in a hopeful and impressionable young
person who so fervently, so simply, wanted to be out in the beauty, somehow contributing something positive to a glorious place and its wondrous creatures. The fact that the only painting I own is
framed and hanging in my home is an amateurish watercolor that I painted on Barnegat Bay’s Sedge
Island in 1976 of an Osprey nest with two chicks—the first I had ever seen—is the best testament
to how much I value my time there.

The world has twice as many people now as when I was born. But it is not twice as good a place
as it was. This implies something of the scale of the challenges, and their urgency. The once vast
bays that you could get lost in are far more crowded. The once clean fish and crabs are far more
contaminated. The bird colonies that seemed wild and eternal now suffer more frequent inundation
in a world of more frequent storm surges atop ever-rising sea levels.
Reading this book will make you an expert of sorts on Barnegat Bay and the other Northeast
Bays. That might seem an ambitious goal for the authors as well as the reader. But it really is not
the goal. It is merely the starting point. The bays need advocates and defenders. And advocates and
defenders need experts. That is where you will come in.
The authors have spent their careers putting this information together. This work, inspired by
the beauty of mornings and urged onward by the cries of terns, compiled boat ride by boat ride, step
by muddy step, mosquito bite by mosquito bite, through long hours under a hot sun and longer under
desk lamps, is the work of their lifetime. The authors have bequeathed to the next generation not
the culmination of all things knowable about Barnegat Bay—though this book may make it seem
that way. Rather, their gift is to make it that much easier to get started on a new journey, our own.
But be warned. As this pathfinding book indicates, the future is not what it used to be. But
therein is the next generation’s opportunity. Turn the page and take your first muddy step.
Carl Safina
Director
The Safina Center at Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, New York
www.safinacenter.org

xvii


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Preface
Huddled deep in my down jacket, grasping my arms around my waist to keep in the heat, I
faced into the wind. Beside me stood Fred Lesser, stoically steering the boat through the chilly fog
of an early summer morning. I could hardly see the front of the 18 ft whaler, yet he was focused
on a distant island, its position marked on the map in his head. “We need an early start,” he had
said. What in the world was I doing skimming across Barnegat Bay, in the Ocean County Mosquito
Commission boat? Fred, an ecologist, was the director of the Commission. He was unusual for his
time and place. He had a holistic view of mosquito control, and the importance of maintaining the
marsh ecosystem with as little management as possible, while still controlling mosquitos. Coastal
ecosystems and mosquito control were important to the New Jersey State economy, even then, in the
early 1970s. People living in beach communities, walking the beaches of New Jersey, fishing in the
surf, or playing with their children in the sand did not want to be harassed by mosquitos. Mosquito
control was big business, but mosquitos were part of a complex estuarine ecosystem that we were
studying.
In the early dawn, Fred had picked me up from my hunting hut on Clam Island, where I was
studying the social interactions among nesting gulls. We were bound for the Lavallette islands in the
north end of the bay. We would census the birds there, check their breeding status, then start south
stopping systematically at all the suitable islands to count the number of nesting gulls, terns, and
skimmers on each salt marsh island. I had a coastal chart in my pack, but Fred was working off his
mental map, honed since he was a youngster. He grew up on the bay, and his love for it was infectious. Channels are for boaters who want to avoid running aground, but we had to reach islands, and
Fred knew the way into each, at almost any tide.
The fog burned off before we reached the northern end of the bay. The blue sky peeked through
the disappearing clouds, and the sun grew warmer. He cut the engine, and as we drifted noiselessly
up to the first island, a few Common Terns flew overhead, hurrying away to plunge-dive for fish and
bring back their courtship feeding offering to a waiting mate. When we bumped into the island, a
cloud of terns arose from the Spartina mats, circling overhead and calling loudly. I sat and watched,
and was hooked on the swirling mass of delicate terns, some with a faint blush of pink on their
breasts. More practically, Fred hooked the anchor into the marsh.
We walked through the nesting colony that day, counting adults, counting nests, counting the

number of eggs in each nest, and recording any eggs washed out of nests or that were cut open by
predators. “No tern chicks yet,” we noted, “another week at least.” We counted the numbers of other
species nesting on each of the islands—mainly, Herring Gulls on the islands in the northern part
of the bay—they nested earlier and were already feeding their downy chicks, still cute at this stage.
In the middle of the bay, down by Barnegat Inlet, some of the islands had small Cherry and Poison
Ivy bushes that held the nests of Great and Snowy Egrets, Black-crowned Night-Herons, and other
species. This morning we only counted from afar, and tried not to flush the incubating birds. Farther
south, the Common Tern colonies were next to Laughing Gull colonies; and still farther south, there
were Black Skimmers nesting on sandy patches or on the wrack, the dark brown mats of dead vegetation washed up on the salt marsh islands by winter storms.
It was enchanting to see the subtle differences in habitats on these salt marsh islands, and all the
different combinations of colonial nesting birds. I not only got to see the mosaic of different vegetation
types, but to map their distribution as part of our research on habitat suitability and availability. Did
the terns know something about habitat quality not yet evident to our eyes? Hidden in the Spartina
grass, there were nests of Salt Marsh and Seaside Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Marsh Wrens, and
the occasional Clapper Rail or Willet. Pairs of Oystercatchers would circle around us calling loudly,
a distinctive piping note, luring us away from their nests or chicks. It was amazing to see this avian
diversity residing on small salt marsh islands. By the time we passed under the Manahawkin Bridge,
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there was a steady stream of beach-bound traffic. In midsummer, the barrier beaches were teeming with
thousands of tourists, the roads often crammed with cars unable to move faster than a Diamond-back

Terrapin crossing the sand to reach its nesting habitat. I fell in love with the ambiance and have been
enthralled for more than 40 years by the birds of Barnegat Bay, the subtle hues of the vegetation that
change through the season, and the islands themselves that have changed over the years. I have always
felt incredibly privileged to be out on the bay, and that this research was my job as a university professor.
“They pay you to do that,” my father had once said when I explained my typical week.
Like the gulls, terns, and herons that form dense colonies to breed, people who study these species
flock together at professional meetings, seeking out others to compare observations or collaborate. How
do the habitats differ? How do the colonies differ? How do the predators differ? and How do people
influence the success or failure of these colonies? The nearest Common Tern colonies were on Long
Island, which led me to Mike Gochfeld, who had also been studying the terns. Mike’s interest in toxicology rubbed off on me, and my interest in behavior rubbed off on him, and we began collaborating.
We visited each other’s colonies, and over the years, focused our attention on Barnegat Bay. In
part, this shift was due to the abandonment of many of the Long Island colonies because of encroaching predators and people, and in part the shift reflected the protected nature of the Barnegat Bay salt
marsh islands. Being surrounded by shallow water, still inhabited by healthy numbers of Salt Marsh
Mosquitos and Greenhead flies, and devoid of any sandy beaches, they were inhospitable to boaters.
The islands were left alone by people if not by the environment. After a preliminary bay-wide study
mapping all of the islands in the mid-1970s, we began to notice that islands had begun to disappear—trimmed around the edges by erosion, washed over by severe winter tides, and broken apart
by ice and wind. We soon realized that we were witness to a drama unfolding on a global scale.
As the years went by, Mike, Fred, and I continued to visit the colonies day after day, week after
week, and year after year. Every spring, when I heard the first Killdeer call over our Somerset home,
I could hear in my mind the calls of the gulls and terns, and we were soon bound for Barnegat Bay
and another field season—40 plus at last count. Our studies widened to include the population
dynamics and heavy metal levels in the gulls and terns, herons and egrets, and even to the fish they
consumed. Although the bird colonies are on islands, they are not isolated from other parts of the
ecosystem, and our interests include fish, crabs, Horseshoe Crabs, and Diamond-back Terrapin, as
well as the interactions between people and the birds. Although Barnegat Bay was our focus, we
also worked in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary and in Delaware Bay.
This book is a result of our more than 40 years of study on the behavior, populations, and heavy metals in the colonial birds nesting in Barnegat Bay and the nearby estuaries and bays in the Northeastern
United States. Some data sets are more complete than others; some questions required only a few years
of data to answer, and some required collaboration with other colleagues. Many remain unanswered
for the new generation of researchers who have studied with us. Just as the flavor of nesting colonies of

birds requires understanding the habitat, avian coinhabitants, predators, and competitors, the evolving
research approaches and new technologies require many collaborations with a wide range of scientists
and disciplines. And it requires integration of our findings with those of others in disciplines including toxicology, geology, and climate change science. We are eternally grateful to the birds and their
ecosystems, and to the many people who have been our collaborators and friends over the years.
Joanna Burger

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Preface
Even in medical school, I tried never to miss a fall weekend to visit Jones Beach. It is a famous
bird watching spot, particularly on fall migration. Exhausted migrants literally fall out of the
sky into the short beach vegetation where they are easily seen (or eaten), exhausted after a long
night flight. If they overshoot and crash at sea, gulls are only too willing to lift them from their
watery doom and swallow them. Migrating Merlins will often pause to make a pass at a flock of
sparrows feeding on an open lawn. There, in the loop of the beach access road, I found a number
of dead birds—fledgling Common Terns that had not made it. They were banded—with metal
rings on one skeletal leg. I dutifully turned in the band numbers, dozens of them. There began
my field studies of the colonial waterbirds of the Jones Beach strip, part of the New York–New
Jersey Estuary.
The following spring, I found a thousand pairs of Common Terns and a hundred pairs of Black
Skimmers, and dozens of Roseate Terns, nesting just inside the bend of the highway. Nearby, Least
Terns and Piping Plover nested on the beaches, just waiting to be trapped, banded, and studied.
Other banders up and down the coast were doing the same thing, and we would soon learn about
migration, death on the wintering ground, and declining populations.
My studies were not very systematic, but when I met Joanna at a party after a Christmas bird
count, she was showing around a scrapbook illustrating how she was studying Franklin’s Gulls in
a prairie marsh in northwestern Minnesota. Our colonies offered stark contrasts—not just beach

versus marsh or beautiful tern versus beautiful gull. I could drive right up to my colony; park
close to the nesting birds, and walk to a hot dog stand when the need arose. Joanna reached her
study area by boat through Moose-infested, seemingly endless and trackless marshes, then wading chest deep in icy water to mark her nests, and sleeping night after night in a wooden blind to
make her observations—“collecting data,” she called it. I made a mental note to marry her some
time.
Several years later, When Joanna was studying the three-dimensional pattern of nesting in heron
and egret colonies, she asked me to show her some of the recently formed colonies on Long Island.
To reach Seganus Thatch, a small island near Captree, with a bustling heronry, we had to wade. By
wade, I mean chest deep over unfamiliar substrate, gear held high overhead, for a hundred yards or
so, and then clamber up onto a rather shaky muddy island covered with Bayberry and Poison Ivy. An
explosion of Great and Snowy Egrets, Black-crowned Night-Herons, Little Blues, and Glossy Ibis
flushed from their nests, offering a spectacular vision as they circled away from the colony. We had
chosen a cloudy morning so their eggs would not be overheated in their absence, as Joanna planned
to measure nest height and nearest neighbor distance, and then take fish-eye photos upward to assess
neighbor visibility. We allotted ourselves an hour. Initially thwarted by the dense tangle of vegetation, Joanna hurled her body physically against the bushes and clambered over the Poison Ivy vines
to reach each nest. I followed suit. “Watch the Poison Ivy,” I cautioned in vain since it was everywhere. “You don’t get Poison Ivy?” I questioned. “Very badly,” she answered, as she crashed forward to reach the first nest, a Night-Heron with four pale blue eggs. This was much too interesting.
We both felt Seganus was a great success. Lots of accessible nests and good data. Later in the
car, I asked Joanna, almost casually, how she would go about studying the Common Tern nesting
ecology. I had been laboriously measuring vegetation around each nest and at matched points one
and two meters away. Joanna started, unhesitatingly, to talk about random points and sample size,
vegetation characteristics, substrate quality and different habitats, and offered to use her fish eye
to see if the Common Terns care as much about the proximity of neighbors as did Franklins Gulls

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and egrets. I would later learn that this was her stock in trade, being able to grasp a whole problem
at once, recognize its context and visualize it as individual components amenable to collecting,
analyzing, and publishing data. This book reflects that approach, integrating disparate disciplines
into a meaningful story. It was lunchtime. I bought her a hot dog at the Captree Fishing Station. It
was courtship feeding.
Michael Gochfeld

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Note: Unless otherwise noted, all photographs are by the authors.


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Acknowledgments
We especially thank Fred Lesser for his invaluable help over the years in monitoring the bird
colonies in Barnegat Bay, and in providing thousands of hours of friendship and invaluable information about the bay. Christian Jeitner, Taryn Pittfield, and Brian Palestis went above and beyond
in helping us finish this book (Figure A.1). We are grateful to a number of Joanna’s graduate students who have gone on to have their own distinguished careers but continue to work with us,
and although we mention some in the relevant chapters, we thank them now, including Michael
Allen, Bill Boarman, John Brzorad, Chris Davis, Amanda Dey, Susan Elbin, Jeremy Feinberg,
Tom Fikslin, Steve Garber, Amy Greene, Caldwall Hahn, Chris Jeitner, Larry Niles, Brian Palestis,
Kathy Parsons, Taryn Pittfield, Carl Safina, Jorge Saliva, Dave Shealer, Nellie Tsipoura, Laura
Wagner, and Wade Wander. Several people have taken part in surveys of bird populations, collection of eggs and feathers, and metal analysis, and we thank them now, including Brian Palestis,
Chris Jeitner, Taryn Pittfield, Mark Donio, Sheila Shukla, Tara Shukla, Tom Benson, and Jim Jones.
We thank Dave Jenkins, Larry Niles, Mandy Dey, Chris Davis, Kathy Clark, and many others at
the Endangered and Nongame Program (NJDEP) for data and support over the years. In addition to
the above, we have had many valuable discussions with others about population dynamics, colonial
birds, habitats, heavy metals, or Barnegat Bay, and they have shaped our thinking, including Ken
Able, Jim Applegate, Peter Becker, Colin Beer, Paul and Francine Buckley, Keith Cooper, John
Coulson, Liz Craig, Tom and Chris Custer, Emile DeVito, Mike Erwin, Peter Frederick, Michael

Fry, Michael Gallo, Bernard Goldstein, Steven Handel, Helen Hays, Joe Jehl, Mike Kennish, David
Kosson, Jim Kushlan, Charlie and Mary Leck, James Shissias, Kenneth Strait, Paul Lioy, Brooke
Maslo, Clive Minton, Dan and Aileen Morse, Bert and Patti Murray, Ian Nisbet, David Peakall,
Todd Plover, Chuck Powers, Nick Ralston, Barnett Rattner, Robert Risebrough, B. A. Schreiber,
Ellen Silbergeld, Humphrey Sitters, Marilyn Spalding, Jeff Spendelow, Alan Stern, Ted Stiles, Niko
Tinbergen, HB Tordoff, Dick Veitch, Dwain Warner, Judy and Pete Weis, Chip Weseloh, Chris and
Paula Williams, Bob Zappalorti, Ed Zillioux, and many others in the Waterbird Society. The list of
friends and colleagues who have helped over the years is endless, and we hope you know who you are.
We especially want to note and thank the next generation of researchers who have made such
wonderful contributions to the literature and conservation of these species, and will take on and
continue long-term studies that we believe are so important for science, adaptive management, conservation, and the long-term stewardship of the resources we love and care for. Among numerous
and relatively new investigators are Carolyn Mostello for Massachusetts bays and estuaries; Susan
Elbin, Nellie Tsipoura, and Liz Craig for the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary; Brian Palestis
for Barnegat Bay; Larry Niles, Mandy Dey, Nellie Tsipoura, and David Mizrahi for Delaware Bay;
and Brian Watts for the Chesapeake. We are grateful to our editors, John Sulzycki, Jill Jurgensen,
and Linda Leggio at CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, who provided invaluable aid and advice throughout this project.
Finally, we thank our parents (Melvin and Janette Burger, Anne and Alex Gochfeld), our
brothers and sisters and their spouses (Melvin Burger Jr., Christina and Fritz Wiser, John and
Linda Burger, Barbara Kamm, Roy and Anne Burger; Bob and Elizabeth Gochfeld) for providing
support and encouragement over the years, our children and spouses (Deborah Gochfeld, Marc
Slattery, Julia Schafhauser, and David Gochfeld) for their wonderful contributions to our lives
and work, and the next generation (Edward Burger, Kathy, Greg and Caroline Drapeau, Michael,
David, and Daniel and Charlie Wiser, Jacob and Lisa Burger, Andy Burger, Ben Kamm, Eric,
Beth, Emily, Allison, Alexis and Amanda Burger; Jennifer Wolfson and Douglas Gochfeld) as our
best hope for a sustainable world that enriches their lives, engages their imagination, and protects
the natural world we so love.

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Acknowledgments

 

 
We especially thank Fred Lesser (top left), Christian Jeitner (top right), Taryn Pittfield
­(bottom left), and Brian Palestis (bottom right), for making this book happen.


Acknowledgments

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Funding for this project over the years has been provided by the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection (Endangered and Nongame Species Program, Science and Research), U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Department of the Interior (USFWS), the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the Trust for Public Lands, the
New Jersey Audubon Society, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation
(CRESP, DE-FC01-06EW07053), Rutgers University, the Environmental and Occupational Health
Sciences Institute, and the Tiko Fund.