News from the Seabird Islands
August 6, 2002 - SPECIAL EVENT! LIVE FROM EASTERN EGG ROCK!! MEET THE ISLAND STAFF AND SEE LOTS (we hope!) of PUFFINS.
Friday, August 9th on the Internet - www.projectpuffin.org - From 6:00 a.m. to noon the live streaming video camera will be specially manned to find the most interesting views of puffins and other seabirds. At Noon, Project Director Steve Kress will introduce island staff on camera and chat about their summer with the birds. Meet Ellen Peterson, Island Supervisor, and other members of her hardy crew. Ellen has been living on this 7-acre seabird-nesting island since the first week in June!!!
The Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Outdoor
Heritage Fund have sponsored the camera.
OTHER NEWS FROM THE ISLANDS:
Eastern Egg Rock- As we go into our last week of field studies, puffin burrows are currently at an all time high count of 52- a 41% increase over last summer's total count of 37. Puffin chicks have either left their underground burrows for the open ocean, or are in their last days of being fed by their parents.
Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge - So far this summer our island biologists have macgowan@purdue.educounted 170 active burrows, 25 more than last year.
Terns on the move- Many terns have already left our seabird islands on their way to wintering grounds in the southern hemisphere, and a number of young terns are just trying out their wings for the first time. Common Terns are on their way to Argentina, Arctic Terns are flying across the Atlantic to the coast of Africa and then on to Antarctica, and most Roseate Terns have already departed for the coast of Brazil. Terns generally migrate in family groups.
ALL ISLANDS - Large numbers of shorebirds are coming through on
their southbound migration. way south. Outer Green Island and Stratton
Island are reporting whimbrels and dowitchers, and all islands are seeing
lots of ruddy turnstones. Two red knots were seen among more than 200
turnstones on Eastern Egg Rock.
July 16th, 2002 - Island news...
Eastern Egg Rock - Our observant and hardworking team of biologists have confirmed that at least 41 pairs of Atlantic Puffins are nesting and all are feeding chicks - an impressive jump of four pairs over last year's previous record of 37. The final count of nests will not be determined until mid August as late hatching nests may still be found. This information was not easily obtained, as it takes many hours of patiently sitting in small observation blinds placed among the puffin nesting boulders to see who is breeding with whom, and where. One five-week-old chick was gently lifted out of its burrow this week, and is now wearing the letter "R" on a distinctive black band that will identify it as a native-hatched puffin chick. Most other chicks are in burrows too deep for the researchers to reach. Also, the first Common Tern chick fledgling of the year was seen flying over Eastern Egg Rock today. About a thousand more will soon be on the wing!
Outer Green Island - News of the first tern chick hatching here in 88 years made it in a big way onto the front page of the Portland Sunday Telegram on July 14th. Under a large headline entitled, "Tern For the Better," writer Meredith Goad ably chronicled the hard work and months of perseverance necessary to produce results like this. In addition to the photogenic and fuzzy little chick, there are 19 other eggs waiting to hatch. You can read this account online at:
Matinicus Rock - Supervisor Paula Shannon and colleagues have captured
measured and banded 200 Arctic Terns as part of a multi-year cooperative
venture with the Canadian Wildlife Service. Canadian Ph.D. student Kate
Devlin is looking for long-term survival and movement between Arctic Tern
nesting islands. This information will prove helpful in understanding
why Arctic Terns are having a slower recovery than Common and Roseate
Terns.
Seal Island - Supervisor Christine Currant reports that her team has identified their 100th active puffin burrow. This number is similar to the number discovered by this date last year, but many more burrows will likely be discovered in the coming weeks. Her team has also banded 200 Arctic Tern chicks as part of our research on this species.
Seabird Cam - The live-streaming seabird camera at Eastern Egg Rock is now showing large chicks begging for food from Common and Roseate Terns. Next week we will move this to the puffin nesting area. Visit Egg Rock via the seabird cam.
Boat tours are now leaving 11 times a week from New Harbor and Boothbay Harbor on their way to Eastern Egg Rock to see puffins and terns. Education intern Jackie Borza is narrating many of the cruises, after spending three exciting weeks on Eastern Egg Rock as a field biologist. For cruise schedules call the Hardy Boat at 1-800-2-puffin, or Cap'n Fish at (207) 633-3244.
July 5, 2002 - First Tern
Chick Hatches on Outer Green
Matt Martinkovic proudly announced the hatching of the first chick in
88 years on the morning of July 5th. There are now nine pairs of Common
Terns nesting on Outer Green Island. Terns had not nested on this Casco
Bay island since 1914 because Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls excluded
the smaller, more migratory terns. This summer the Audubon team dissuaded
the gulls from nesting (by using fireworks called "screamers and
bangers"). One hundred life-sized decoys and nonstop recordings attracted
the state-threatened terns to the island.
Tern Hatch is Underway
Tern eggs are hatching and there are now thousands of little chicks on
Audubon's seven managed islands. Adult terns are extremely busy catching
and bringing in small herring and hake to feed their voracious young,
and island biologists are just as busy banding chicks and measuring how
productive this year's breeding season is turning out to be. Visit our
live-streaming tern camera on Eastern Egg Rock to watch for tern chicks:
www.projectpuffin.org
Egg Rock Puffins
On Eastern Egg Rock, supervisor Ellen Peterson and staff have counted
34 pairs of puffins currently raising young - an exciting jump of 11 pairs
over last season's total at this date. Additionally, several new burrow
sites have been seen among the jumble of Egg Rock's boulders, a discovery
which leads us to be cautiously optimistic that last year's record total
of 37 nests will be surpassed this summer. Ellen also reports that she
has confirmed that all of the puffins in the Adopt-a-Puffin program are
back!
Pete Salmansohn wins Award
Education Coordinator Pete Salmansohn received the 2002 Visionary Award
from the Gulf of Maine Council in the Governor's mansion in Augusta, Maine.
Pete received the award for developing our outreach program to Maine public
schools and boat tour program to Eastern Egg Rock. In the audience were
four people who were either instrumental in Pete coming to Maine 22 years
ago, or in collaborating with him on Puffin Project boat tours and programs
- Mike and Margie Shannon, Steve Kress, and Rose Borzik. In his remarks,
Pete said " Working for Audubon has been one of the greatest privileges
of my life."
Murres on Matinicus Rock
Matinicus Rock biologists have seen as many as 30 Common Murres at one
time on the well known seabird cliff known as "the loafing ledge."
A Murre attraction program has been underway for the last ten years there,
and perhaps this summer will see the first Murre egg to be laid on Matinicus
Rock since 1870.
June 22, 2002 - Are the storms of late Spring finally over? Our seabird islands were hit hard in mid-June as driving rain and storms coursed across the Gulf of Maine. On June 15th the wind hit 42 mph on Seal Island National Widlife Refute, destroying one observation blind. The wind chill hit an unseasonable 22 degrees. Matinicus Rock also lost a bird blind, and about 100 tern nests were lost on Stratton Island by extreme storm action. The cold temperatures and rain kept our biologists from going about their busy research schedule, but now, during the first days of summer, the weather pattern seems to have changed and sunny warm days are with us.
Tern censuses have just been completed, and island supervisors are working on final totals. Seal Island reports a record 2,614 nests - a jump of some 500 nests since last summer. Pond Island terns are now guarding 109 nests, which is down slightly from last year, but is a rebound from low numbers in May.
Outer Green Island was visited by a television camera crew from Portland channel 8, and Matt Martinkovic is on his way to being a new wildlife film star. The single tern nest there now has 3 eggs in it, a jump from the single egg reported in our last newsletter. This is the first tern nest on Outer Green Island since 1914 and offers encouragement that this new project will eventually lead to a thriving new tern colony.
Puffin nesting is being monitored on our three puffin islands - Eastern Egg Rock; Seal Island; and Matinicus Rock. Ellen Petersen, supervisor on Egg Rock, reports that there are 21 active puffin burrows so far, and more being observed every day.
School visits are over for the year, and on the last full day of classes, Pete Salmansohn was teaching 3rd graders in Bristol how to use binoculars and understand the concept of field marks. Students got a good look at a herring gull perched on the school's brick chimney. Seabird Sue Schubel and Pete are now busy creating a new curriculum archiving live video footage of terns and their chicks for use in classes this fall.
Seabird Camera is on the Internet. Focused on incubating terns. Tern eggs are hatching this week. Watch for the first chicks to make their appearance on our real time, streaming video. Click here to access the camera.
- Current Breeding Season
- 2006 Breeding Season
- 2005 Breeding Season
- 2004 Breeding Season
- 2003 Breeding Season
- 2001 Breeding Season
You
can support Project Puffin through our Adopt-a-Puffin program. By adopting
a Puffin, you contribute to insuring the future of Puffins on Maine's
Coast...and now
you can do it online!
|
puffin@audubon.org |
Mailing Address: Project Puffin 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, New York 14850 607-257-7308 |