Life isn’t easy for the common tern, a kind of seabird that likes to nest on Hoboken’s Pier 11. Recently, though, the threatened species has gotten a much-needed boost from the community.
The Hoboken Tern Parade, a city-wide celebration of the city’s newly named honorary bird, is being held now through June 1. Thirty local businesses and organizations, including Fiore’s House of Quality, Lepore’s Famous Chocolates and Little City Books, are displaying fanciful tern decoys created by local artists.
After June 1, the parade will be on view at the Hoboken library until June 13, on June 15 at a waterfront event, and, following that, at the Hoboken Historical Museum. Eventually they’ll be auctioned off, with proceeds going to protection efforts.
The spring celebration, which includes scavenger hunts and bird walks, is an effort to bring attention to the tern’s plight. The birds were almost wiped out during the Victorian era, when they were hunted for their feathers, used to adorn hats. With protections, their numbers bounced back, only to plummet again in recent years due to habitat loss.
Two years ago, local birding enthusiasts, led by activist and educator Jeffrey Train, discovered that the owner of the pier had hung nets to keep the terns away. Train started a conservation group, Our Tern, and when a bird got caught in the netting and died, local officials and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection got involved. The nets came down.
A tern on Hoboken’s waterfront. Photo: Courtesy of Juan Melli
The next challenge is finding the terns a new home. City officials are investigating the feasibility of building a pier where the birds can nest undisturbed. In their mission, the birders are joined by a supportive international community also fighting to preserve tern nesting sites.
Our Tern was inspired by a group in Honolulu, Hawaii that named the white tern its official bird, and a community leader from a Mexican town has reached out for advice on protecting their own local population. When citizens speak up, Train says, “there is an echo effect that sends a message that everybody can do this. And that’s really, really important.”
The live colony can be observed from early May through summer’s end on the waterfront at 12th Street.
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