"Here a Chick, There a Chick, Everywhere a Chick Chick..."

Brown Noddy With Chick and Egg Nearby West End Point/Blolly Ham Bay

This week, I spent some time visiting our tern colonies with my friends from Wildlife Management International.

Caribbean Martin Adults With Juvenile

Nesting Caribbean Martins were among the Brown Noddy colony on West End, and I was happy to see the family above. Parents were continually visiting chicks in the crevices to provide food. Their peeps were loud and boisterous.

Brown Noddy With Egg in Nest

The Noddies continue to defy gravity by nesting on the edge of the cliffs.

Brown Noddy With Chick

Their chicks, at varying stages of development, have adapted to living on the edge. It’s as if they are unaware of the fifty-foot drop that awaits them with one wrongly placed step. It is enough to take your breath away.

I later returned to Road Salt Pond to capture nesting activities and am happy to share a few moments I observed.

I captured a Gray Kingbird nesting in a tree at the pond edge. This species is more likely to be seen nesting on a telephone pole than in a tree.

The majority of time was spent filming the Least Tern habitats around the pond.

For the 2025 seabird nesting season, two ecosystems exist on Road Salt Pond. A new “planned community” has been introduced to help facilitate the nesting process, which is impeded by human intervention and feral cats.

The video above shows a small piece of the action on the man-made barge. As you can see, it is being well utilized.

Many traditional nesting sites on Road Salt Pond are underwater, forcing the colony to move to an area on the opposite side. This location is much smaller and closer to the intense traffic from local restaurants and the port.

Despite the interruption, the video shows active mating, chicks at various stages of development, and parental care. It’s a small window into the 2025 seabird nesting season on Anguilla’s wetlands.