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Video by Brannen Parrish

For the Birds: Tulsa District Biologists Complete 2024 ILT Counts

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District

Sept. 20, 2024 | 1:40

Jason Person, biologist, Tulsa District Natural Resource Section, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees the district's Interior Least Tern monitoring program. Person and two other Tulsa District biologists on the program, Stacy Dunkin and Chris Gilliland, travel throughout the rivers that traverse the Tulsa District's area of responsibility which include the Arkansas River, Red River and Canadian River to count the protected Interior Least Tern. The ILT prefers to nest on sandbars in prairie rivers and comes to Oklahoma in the late spring each year to breed and nest. The smallest of the terns, they average about eight to nine inches and build nests on sandbars with minimal or no vegetation. The ILT was on the endangered species list from 1985 to 2021. Tern nests are susceptible to rising river flows during floods and storms, so the the Tulsa District, in conjunction with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, conducts counts of adults and fledglings about every two weeks from May to August. During nesting season, Person hosts regular ILT Committee meetings with representatives from the Little Rock District, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, the USFWS, tribes, power companies and other agencies. Person talks about the ILT Program and how the population has exceeded its goals over the past five years.