South Beach in Chatham and Sandy Neck in Barnstable were found to be important roosting areas with an estimated 3,850 roseates at South Beach alone on one day. Coast Guard Beach in Eastham was used mainly for daytime staging and feeding. A fourth site, Jeremy Point in Wellfleet, had large numbers of terns during two aerial surveys in September but, Trull says, further investigation is needed to determine its importance as a staging or roosting area. Hard hit by the millinery trade and by gunners in the nineteenth century, roseates, like many other tern species, have made a small recovery since protection earlier this century. Nonetheless, the total northeastern population numbers no more than 4,000 pairs.
Roseate terns spend the summer in mixed breeding colonies with the common tern.
After nesting, adults and juveniles move to staging and roosting areas in preparation for migratory flights south. Staging areas, as defined by Trull, are areas where concentrations of terns rested during daylight hours, between bouts of feeding just offshore. Roosting areas were beaches where the flocks rested for the evening. The report recommends that the towns of Barnstable, Chatham, Eastham, and Wellfleet carry out long-term monitoring and protection on staging and roosting beaches while initiating a public education program to foster support and define restrictions to these areas during critical times. Further, the report states that Nantucket Airport should be advised of the importance of Eel Point and Smith s Point as staging areas, and large mixed flock of common and roseate terns at a daytime resting site consider alternative flight paths from the west between August 20 and September 15.