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? <br />? <br />13 <br />Least Tern <br />Both the least tern and piping plover occupy similar habitat on <br />the Platte River (Faanes 1983). The first recorded nesting of <br />least terns on the Platte River system was in 1926 (Tout 1947). <br />Least terns were found nesting in a colony on sandbars in the <br />South Platte River.near. North Platte, Nebraska (Tout. 1947). <br />Observations made from 1926 through 1929 showed populations at <br />this site were: 1926 - 34 adults (17 nests), 1928 - 36 adults <br />(18 nests), and 1929 - 50 adults (22 nests). Least terns were <br />also present in 1930, but a storm killed some adults and'reduced <br />the colony to about half its former size. No data are available <br />from the Platte River from 1931 -1940: The next recorded observation in the Platte.River system was'in <br />1941 when birds were found nesting on Sandbars i4 the river near <br />=Columbus (Shoemaker 1941). Ten and possibly more nests suggest <br />that the colony size was at minimum 20 adults. A single nest, <br />and then young, was found at Merritt's Beach swimming lake, <br />northwest of Plattsmouth in 1943 (Heineman 1944). Six pairs of <br />least terns were found nesting on a sandbar in the South Platte <br />River in 1948 two miles east of Brule, Keith County (Benckeser. <br />1948). Nesting was recorded again on the South Platte River in <br />the vicinity of North Platte in 1949 (Aud Field Notes 3:244).The longest field study of least terns on the Platte River was <br />conducted for 17 years (1944 - 1960) south of Lexington (Wycoff <br />1960). The nesting area was a low sandbar not over 75 feet wide <br />and about 200 feet long. The highest number of nesting least <br />terns reported by Wycoff (1960) from this.location ranged from 2 <br />individuals in 1952 to 35 individuals in 1949. • <br />Downing (1980) conducted an aerial survey of least tern use of <br />the Platte River in 1975. A population of 150 least terns was <br />estimated from the 80 birds Downing observed (Table 5). <br />Following Downing's initial survey in 1975, partial surveys were <br />'conducted along two different segments of the river in 1979 and <br />1981 (Table 5). Surveys of interior least terns on the Platte <br />River have been conducted annually since 1982 by the Nebraska <br />Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) and the Platte River Whooping <br />Crane Trust. • , <br />Survey coverage and effort has varied annually. Both aerial and <br />ground surveys were made along the Platte River from North <br />Platte, Nebraska, downstream to Plattsmouth, Nebr.aska in 1982 and <br />1983. Because of the Yiigh flows in 1983,.survey effort was •expanded to include 21 sandpits adjacent to the Platte River; <br />four sandpits were surveyed in 1982. Although the census effort <br />varied between years during 1983 through 1988, area coverage <br />remained relatively constant.