NH biologist worried endangered birds down

CONCORD, N.H.—Biologists are concerned about the regional population of an endangered marine bird that lives in New Hampshire and other regions of the Northeast.

Biologist Dan Hayward says the Roseate tern population is down about 20 percent.

Biologists say they are not sure what happened to the terns over the winter, because the birds didn't come back to breed this year.

Hayward says the number of common tern pairs nesting on Seavey Island is down about 5.5 percent.

However, Hayward says the Isle of Shoals overall tern population, including state-endangered common terns and state-threatened Arctic terns, continued to do well this year.

He says biologists aren't too concerned with the decrease in common terns because populations fluctuate from year to year. He says the tern population has reached target levels and remained stable for several years.

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Information from: Foster's Daily Democrat, http://www.fosters.com