By Jim Wright

Special to The Record | USA TODAY NETWORK - NEW JERSEY

    In an age of avian flu outbreaks, declining bird populations and other environmental woes, here’s some heartening news from a town that may not come to mind for an avian renaissance. 

    Welcome to Hoboken, a.k.a. Tern City. In a very big way, the mile-square city (pop. 57,000) has been celebrating that common terns – almost once extinct – have nested since 2013 on an old pier along Frank Sinatra Drive.

    Birders rejoiced when the population grew to 86 terns a decade later.

    That changed last year when the pier’s owner put up netting in an attempt to thwart the terns. Many of the birds managed to nest anyway, and three local nature lovers – Juan Melli, Noelle Thurlow and Jeff Train  (who teaches English at Northern Valley) –  wanted their fellow Hobokenites to appreciate what a big deal it was to have this crow-size shorebird in residence.  

    The trio formed a small non-profit called “Our Tern” to spread the word, and have they ever succeeded. Their first triumph: The Hoboken Council passed a resolution officially designating the tern as the city’s honorary bird.

    Nowadays, there seems to be a gentle tern promotion everywhere you turn:

    * A local brewery is offering a new beer called Our Tern on Tap.

    * A restaurant is providing young patrons with tern ornaments to decorate, while another sells “riga-terni” pizza.  

    * The Hoboken Public Library is offering a limited-edition library card featuring – what else? – a common tern.

    * Our Terners are visiting schools to explore how and why this bird is a vital part of Hoboken’s environmental l history.

    Next Tuesday, Our Tern and the Hoboken Business Alliance are beginning a two-month promotion called the “tern parade.” More than 30 businesses and groups will showcase tern decoys they’ve painted for the event. In early June, the Hoboken library will display the decoys, and – for a day – the terns will be on view on the public pier adjacent to the real-live nesting terns.

    Why the hullabaloo?  “Common” is a misnomer for these migratory birds, which were almost hunted to extinction in the late 1800s. As Neltje Blanchan noted in “Birds that Hunt and Are Hunted,” the common tern had become anything but — ““except in the dry-goods stores, since its sharply pointed wings and often its entire body were thought by the milliners to give style to women's hats.”

    As the Hudson River and New York Harbor recovered from decades of pollution, the tern population has rebounded. But they still face challenges. The owner of the pier where they nest wants to develop it.

    To address the situation, Our Tern plans to build a 24-foot by 24-foot floating island in a nearby cove in north Hoboken.  

    And beyond that? “We’re hoping to bring in black skimmers and least terns,” Jeff Train says. “To have those birds within an urban epicenter could be a fun way to engage more non-birders in the joy of habitat restoration.”

    For more information, go to ourtern.com.

The Bird Watcher column appears every other Thursday.  Email Jim at [email protected].