The loud squabbles and squawks of the punky-haired great crested tern, the black-naped tern, the bridled tern and the red foot-and-beaked roseatetern, fill the air during high summer.
Environmentalists treasure Plum Island as a home to rare plants, a site where seals rest on rocks in large numbers, a stopover point for migratory birds and a habitat for endangered species like the roseatetern.