The Brothers as seen from Lower West Pubnico. (Old 2005 photo by me from my paraglider)

This report will mostly cover work being done on North Brother.

Work on these islands is done in cooperation with Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) and the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (NSDNRR). - Ted D'Eon

THE BROTHERS, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia

OBSERVATIONS:

April 26, 2026 - North Brother

This morning six of us left the shore at the end of Rock Road, Lower West Pubnico and headed out to North Brother on a beautiful morning, perfect for the job at hand.

The crew consisted of Shawn Craik with his wife Amélie, Alexis Saulnier, Luc Bilodeau, Geneviève Gauthier and me.

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Dr. Shawn Craik is a biology professor at Université Sainte-Anne, Church Point, Nova Scotia.

Alexis Saulnier is a former student of Professor Shawn Craik, now working on her Masters at Acadia University, Wolfville, NS. Her Masters involves tern foraging by species and the food they bring back to the colony, and much more!

Luc Bilodeau is the technician of this "tern colony" team. He runs the boat, does the photography for leg bands, etc.,and the heavy lifting. He is also Alexis' partner in life.

Geneviève Gauthier is a graduate student at Université Sainte-Anne, studing waterfowl.

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The plywood blind is still in good shape and the 72 Roseate Tern nesting shelters inside survived the winter well!

The island hasn't changed much since last year other than there is now a little less soil at the southern end. The gang worked hard to remove much of the weeds; these were placed along the shore below the high tide line; hopefully they'll wash away.

And then the numbered nesting boxes were strategically placed so all the numbers could all be seen and read from the blind.

Seven rectangular plots were identified and sprayed with a saline solution to see if this would reduce the unwanted vegetation (especially wild radish) growing among the nesting area; the spray would be repeated two more times. Also, seven "control" plots were identified where no weed managenent would be done, for later comparison with the saline sprayed plots.

It was a lot of work, but with a great team, all went well. Thank you, crew!

Great crew and a job well done! Thank you all.

And, we're on our way - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Alexis Saulnier and Luc Bilodeau leaving the mainland for North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Our landing on North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

The tidal "hollow" on North Brother (from the north, looking south) - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

My old plywood blind survived another winter - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

The south end of the island (looking southeast) - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

The south end of the island (looking north) - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Alexis posing on the south end of the island - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Amélie, Shawn, and Geneviève cleaning up old vegetation - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Luc and Alexis setting up the Roseate Tern nesting shelters - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

More cleanup and setting up - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Luc getting fine gravel substrate for the nesting shelters - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Making a base for shelter placement - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Spraying salt solution in the designated rectangular plots - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

More spraying and setting up - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Most of the nesting shelters are in place - North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Ted D'Eon

Aerial photo of North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Luc Bilodeau

If you look close enough, you will see the placement of the nesting shelters North Brother - April 26 2026 - photo by Luc Bilodeau

May 3?, 2026 - First report of terns in the area.

On Friday, May 8, 2026, I had a conversation with a lobster fisherman who had just tied up at the Dennis Point wharf. He told me the first terns he had seen this spring were from the mainland at Pubnico Point "last weekend".

The weather and sea conditions had not been very good for fishing over the past couple of weeks so they had only gone out a few times. This was Friday, May 8, and the previous time they had gone out fishing was on Saturday, May 2. So, from that, I assume that by "last weekend" he must have meant Sunday, May 3.

If and when I get a better date for the first arrival of terns, I'll update this post.

Ted

May 9, 2026 - Email from Alix d'Entremont.

Terns on May 9, 2026

Kathleen MacAulay, Logan Moore and I left Abbott's Harbour at low tide at about 7 am on May 9, and checked North Brother Island for terns. We estimated about 76 Commons and 4 Arctics, but no Roseates. There were 2 Roseates foraging with about 40 Commons at a place called Hoptoad Ledge near Forbes Point. We didn't see any terns around Ball Bar.

We then landed on Bon Portage Island, checked on the alcid colony at Green Island (near Cape Sable Island) and returned to check the Ball Bar area on the way back to Pubnico. The tide was low on our first check in the morning, but by early adternoon, the tide had changed and a strong current had formed at the northern end of Bon Portage and at Ball Bar. A group of about 50 terns were diving at Bon Portage's northern bar including 3 Roseates. From there we looked north and saw an even bigger group at the Ball Bar. An estimated total of 450 terns were foraging or loafing nearby! This is the most terns I've ever seen away from a breeding colony. We counted and estimated from photos that this huge group of terns could have included up to 69 Roseate Terns! At a minimum, there were certainly at least 43 (13 actively foraging + 30 in a single photo of the loafing birds after a flush). We had a similar observation of an early spring large group of terns at Ball Bar on May 12, 2025 (https://ebird.org/checklist/S237001167).

On our way back to Abbott's Harbour, we stopped to look at North Brother again and saw that there were no terns. They must have all been at the Ball Bar!

The attached images (below) are all from Ball Bar on May 9, 2026.

Alix Arthur d'Entremont

Roseate and Common Terns at Ball Bar, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia - May 9, 2026 - photo by Alix d'Entremont

Roseate and Common Terns at Ball Bar, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia - May 9, 2026 - photo by Alix d'Entremont

Roseate and Common Terns at Ball Bar, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia - May 9, 2026 - photo by Alix d'Entremont

Thank you, Alix, Kathleen, and Logan.

May 19, 2026 - Email from Alix d'Entremont.

North Brother Terns on May 18, 2026

Kathleen MacAulay, Richard Donaldson and I stopped for a quick look from the boat at North Brother in the morning yesterday (May 18) and saw about 400 terns on the island.

See (https://ebird.org/checklist/S341847799)

Species observed:
  2 Common Eider
  1 Ruddy Turnstone
 20 Arctic Tern
265 Common Tern
 15 Roseate Tern
  5 Double-crested Cormorant

Alix Arthur d'Entremont

Thank you, Alix, Kathleen, and Richard.

May 20, 2026 - Email from Alix d'Entremont.

Pubnico Harbour

There have been about 25 terns on Île Ferrée lately. It does look like a pair of Great Black-backed Gulls are nesting there again which isn't great for the terns.

I haven't checked on Île Chespêque.

Thank you, Alix.

May 24, 2026 - Update from North Brother - Email from Alexis Saulnier

Here's a short update from NBI. Luc (Bilodeau) and I went on the island this morning to find approximately 250-275 terns with at least 60 Roseates and 8 Arctics.

I'm glad to say that everything's looking good with the colony: egg laying may have started a bit later than previous years but there are still many Common Tern eggs and a few Roseate eggs, the feeding rate seems good with a typical array of early season prey (small lumpfish, mummichog, hake and herring, some sand lance, and various other fish in small quantities), and no signs of predation.

As usual, we have many returning Roseates that are banded (a full list of bands will be provided later) and we also saw two Common Terns that still have their GPS backpacks (X50 and X57). Unfortunately, the base station hasn't been deployed yet, but we'll let you all know if those tags are still working once we've got everything set up.

We're looking at approximately the 11th of June for the nest count.

We'll keep you posted as the season progresses.

Cheers, Alexis

Thank you, Alexis and Luc

May 31, 2026 - Update from North Brother - Email from Alexis Saulnier

The colony looks healthy and strong, and there are still no signs of predation.

They (the terns) were quite aggressive while we went through the colony and their behaviour is what we expect to see (i.e., not a lot of feeding while partners switch out incubating the egg(s)).

We have 62 Roseate nests, including four active out-of-box nests and a big increase in Arctic Tern nests to at least 15 nests. We also have another returning GPS tagged tern (Roseate Tern band NB4) and we were able to deploy the GPS base station thanks to Jen and Sarah's quick work to get us a functioning one.

Julie (McKnight) will be coming to help us out later this week as we attempt to trap these GPS birds to remove their backpacks.

See a list of identified bands below.

May 16, 2026
Roseate Tern bands

. BL0 (red band, right leg)
. BZ0 (red band, right leg)
. Y85 (red band, left leg)
. Z29 (red band, left leg)
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May 24, 2026
Roseate Tern bands

. A81 (yellow band, left leg)
. T42 (yellow band, left leg)
. VR2 (yellow band, left leg)
. B19 (red band, right leg)
. B40 (red band, right leg)
. B65 (red band, left leg)
. B76 (red band, left leg)
. B95 (red band, right leg)
. BB1 (red band, right leg)
. BJ0 (red band, right leg)
. BU0 (red band, right leg)
. BX0 (red band, right leg)
. L03 (red band, left leg)
. L12 (red band, right leg)
. L13 (red band, left leg)
. L35 (red band, left leg)
. L36 (red band, left leg)
. L53 (red band, right leg)
. L95 (red band, left leg)
. LU0 (red band, right leg)
. LL0 (red band, right leg)
. LR0 (red band, right leg)
. Z00 (red band, right leg)
. Z07 (red band, right leg)
. Z49 (red band, left leg)
. Z52 (red band, right leg)
. Z58 (red band, right leg)
. Z61 (red band, right leg)
. Z62 (red band, right leg)
. Z64 (red band, right leg)
. Z70 (red band, right leg)
. Z72 (red band, left leg)
. Z79 (red band, left leg)
. Z86 (red band, right leg)
. Z93 (red band, right leg)
. 1V5T (metal field readable, left leg)

Common Tern bands

. Orange flag
. X48 (white band, left leg)
. X50 (white band, left leg)
. X57 (white band, left leg)
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May 31, 2026
Roseate Tern bands

. NB4 (yellow band, left leg)
. T83 (yellow band, left leg)
. B12 (red band, right leg)
. RR3 (yellow band, right leg)
. B75 (red band, left leg)

Thank you, Alexis and Luc.

Great to see so many Roseate Tern nests and as well, so many leg bands identified! Great work!

The number of tern nests on The Brothers - A yearly comparison Please note: The Roseate Terns may not have been finished nesting at the time of these nest counts.

ROST nest numbers on The Brothers - 1991 to 2025

Ted C. D'Eon