Date: 7/25/25 6:50 am From: Robert Patton via groups.io <rpatton...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] white-winged tern south san diego bay access legalities and ethics
Rare birds can bring out the best and the worst in birders and photographers. Sorry if I sound like a curmudgeon, but feel that a reminder of ethics is warranted after both personal observations and comments from other birders recently.
First, I want to be clear that I am in no way criticizing those who have already approached the white-winged tern on S San Diego Bay by boat, but with multiple additional birders asking about access, feel clarification is needed. Legally, there is no landing of watercraft on the shore of Chula Vista Wildlife Reserve where the tern has been spending early mornings viewable from J St Marina/Bayfront Park; that is also interpreted as no wading. Due to shoreline erosion, signage in the area is inconsistent, but this Port and USFWS regulation also applies to the saltworks and the Sweetwater Marsh/D St Fill areas. The vast majority of Forster’s tern nesting on SD Bay is in the colony along the marsh/levee/jetty fringes of CVWR, including immediately adjacent to the oyster reef ball array that the white-winged tern roosts on. If someone approaching that colony is causing adults to fly up and call or dive defensively, or chicks or fledglings to run or fly, CDFW code defines that disturbance as harassment. Belding’s savannah sparrow, Ridgway’s rail, and least terns are also in the area and may be disturbed by approaching watercraft or people.
With such a rarity as the white-winged tern, LOTS of birders are coming to the area to see it. If you attempt approaching by watercraft, please consider that your approach may spook the bird off of an easily viewable area, and deprive others attempting to observe from a distance the ability to see the bird.
With the nesting Forster’s terns (and other species), please be aware that at least as of last week, some birds were still incubating eggs and many others were still tending non-flying chicks, in addition to the number of fledglings hanging out on the shoreline and being fed by parents. If/when terns fly in response to your approach, run, or start giving alarm calls (and particularly if they start diving at you), do not linger for any length of time – back off to reduce the disturbance you’re causing. You may not be able to see the potential impacts your presence causes, but be aware that if the adults are having to fly that is time that they are unable to forage, to feed chicks, fledglings, or to incubate eggs or brood chicks, also exposing those eggs and chicks to predation or to weather (both cool and hot temperatures, wind, and precipitation can prove lethal). Forster’s chicks are also prone to panicking and falling out of nests, getting entangled in vegetation, and drowning during high tides.
Sorry to pull a soapbox routine, but just earlier this week I had to contact USFWS staff after observing a birder squeeze through a gap cut in the bikepath fence and head out into the marsh adjacent to saltworks where their presence was disturbing both nesting Belding’s and snowy plovers (presumably they were looking for the stilt sandpiper…). Multiple times this nesting season we’ve had to contact USFWS or Port staff about watercraft landing at CVWR or D St Fill. And earlier, I had the blood-pressure-raising experience of contacting a photographer along the fence at Tijuana Slough, where he argued that since the least tern he was photographing was sitting on its nest, he wasn’t disturbing anything, refusing to believe that his presence was keeping the nearby displaying snowy plover and 5 other diving least terns from their adjacent nests.
Have fun and good luck birding, but please be aware of the potential impacts of your activities.
Sorry to rant. Thanks,
Robert Patton
San Diego, CA
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