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"[T]his bird is very noysey when flying which it dose extreemly swift the motion of the wing is much like that of the Kildee it has two notes one like the squaking of a small pig only on reather a higher kee, and the other kit'-tee'-kit'-tee'-as near letters can express the sound." -- Meriwether Lewis
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When the Corps of Discovery canoed the Missouri River, Clark commented on the "Sand bars which choked up the Missouri and confined the [river] to a narrow . . . Chanel." These seasonal islands did more than force the water to plot a more meandering course; they provided nesting grounds for migratory birds like the interior least tern, a fork-tailed bird that darts over the banks like a swallow. |
The sandbars where the terns nest depend on seasonal shifts in river levels. High water in the spring deposits sand and uproots any plants. When water levels drop in the summer, they reveal the collected sand and the terns flock there. Dams along the Missouri, managed for barge traffic, disrupt these natural fluctuations and the sandbars are lost. In 1890, sandbar habitat encompassed 35,273 acres along the Missouri between Nebraska and Iowa; in 1976 sandbars covered only 57 acres. These sandbars are important for a host of other species as well, including piping plovers.
Changes in the river flow have combined with other factors to rob interior least terns of habitat and reduce their numbers. In the 1880s, hat fashions demanded feathers from all kinds of birds, including the tern. The interior least tern was declared endangered in 1985. Current estimates suggest 4,700 to 5,000 adult birds remain.
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