Least Tern incubating
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Beach nesting birds such as Least Terns are highly vulnerable to disturbance. In such hot habitats, adults shade eggs and hatchlings from lethal temperatures. If the adults are spooked, eggs and hatchlings can die of heat stress. That seems to be the case for hundreds of Least Tern hatchlings and eggs exposed to the summer sun by beachgoers who set up a volleyball net and partied in the midst of what turned out to be Alabama’s largest nesting colony.