Tern for the better

By MEREDITH GOAD, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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Staff photo by John Patriquin Click for slide show

The first common tern chick hatched under the Outer Green Island restoration project is the offspring of a pair dubbed Adam and Eve. View a slide show of photos. (7 images)

OUTER GREEN ISLAND — High on this spit of land in outer Casco Bay, on a small ridge appropriately called the baby back, a common tern swoops in to its nest with a shiny herring in its mouth for a newly-hatched chick. The other parent takes off with high-pitched squawks while its partner feeds their gangly, sand-colored offspring hidden in the high grass.

These terns are the first pair to successfully hatch a chick on Outer Green Island in 88 years, and they are particularly aggressive in defending it, said Matt Martinkovic, who is supervising a tern restoration project on the island for the National Audubon Society.

Martinkovic should know - the terns regularly divebomb him even when he's not anywhere near their nest.

"I've had them clip me on the arm a bit and do whatever they can to get me out of there," he said. "They're great parents. We call them the Adam and Eve of Outer Green."

Nesting terns, once a familiar site in Casco Bay, were driven out during the last century by soaring populations of herring and black-backed gulls that outcompeted them. The first successful tern nest since 1914 gives the birds a second chance on Outer Green and provides an alternative for terns that nest unsuccessfully on other islands because of predation or disease.

"There's so few sites where terns nest now that they're all really critical," said Scott Hall, research coordinator for Audubon's seabird restoration program.

Outer Green Island, a half-hour's boat ride from Falmouth, is the newest link in a chain of islands along the Maine coast where biologists are trying to restore seabird populations to historic levels.

NESTING ISLANDS A yearly census documents the number of pairs of terns nesting on the seven Maine islands managed by Audubon. The census, which runs from June 12 through June 20, occurs during the period when most of the nests are down and eggs are about to start hatching. It is a snapshot in time, so some of these numebrs have changed since the census was completed. To see one of these nests live, visit Audubon's "seabird cam" at www.projectpuffin.org. The camera is currently focused on common and roseate tern chicks at Eastern Egg Rock. Later this week, it will move to the puffin colony.
	Arctic terns	Common terns	Roseate terns	Total
Stratton Island	8	1279	98	1385
Outer Green Island	0	1	0	1
Jenny Island	0	397	0	397
Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge	0	109	0	109
Eastern Egg Rock	81	1054	159	1294
Matinicus Rock	999	198	0	1197
Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge	1046	1568	0	2614

There are now 10 active seabird restoration projects in the Gulf of Maine, seven of which are managed by Audubon, the rest by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Every spring and summer, these organizations, with the help of state biologists and a cadre of volunteers, maintain a human presence on these islands, working to provide safe havens for nesting seabirds.

Puffins have done extraordinarily well this year. On Friday morning, Audubon staff on Eastern Egg Rock in Muscongus Bay discovered the 41st puffin nest of the season, well ahead of last year's record high count of 37 pairs.

"That's a snowballing effect that we're seeing happening there now," said Stephen Kress, director of Audubon's seabird restoration program. "That will mean there's at least 40 chicks being produced with a strong tendency to rejoin that colony."

Terns have had more ups and downs. While Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge reported record numbers of tern nests this year, other sites have had problems with disturbances. A storm on June 14 and 15, along with predation by black-backed gulls, resulted in the loss of probably 200 to 300 tern nests on Eastern Egg Rock, according to Hall.

That same storm destroyed about 150 nests on Stratton Island in Saco Bay. Stratton also suffered from other problems, Kress said: "A night heron ate 400 nests this year."

In Casco Bay, 397 pairs of common terns and two pairs of federally-endangered roseate terns returned to Jenny Island this year. But that is far from the 1,100 pairs that were on the island just a few years ago.

"Casco Bay has been a problem area for terns because there are not many islands that are safe from predators," Kress said. "We worked from 1992 to the present to build up the Jenny Island colony in eastern Casco Bay, but the predators have just really sort of devastated that colony."

Outer Green Island's more isolated location at the mouth of the bay, far away from mainland predators like mink and great-horned owls, could be ideal for attracting birds that have been driven away from islands like Jenny and Stratton.

"The birds that have been successful on Jenny - not last year, but the year before and the year before - are now getting old enough to breed, so they're going to come back to where they were born and they'll try to nest there," said Brad Allen, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. "And maybe after a year or two of failed production, they'll move out to Outer Green."

The hope for the state-owned Outer Green is that common terns will establish a thriving colony there, followed by roseate terns, which nest only in places where there are common tern colonies. Arctic terns could also be lured to the site.

"The arctic tern has not rebounded the way we would like," Allen said, "so places like Outer Green we're hoping will help that species."

Outer Green Island is a wild, wind-whipped place five miles offshore from Portland, where a wet, tricky landing has largely kept picnickers and the curious away. Bank swallows dart and dive along its cliffs.

The island, just six acres, is thick with cow parsnip, nettles and lush grasses. Patches of high grass sprout from ribbons of rock, attractive territory for terns looking for a place to drop their eggs.

Speakers to attract terns

Audubon staff set up camp here in late April, scattering 50 common tern decoys along the southeastern end of the island. They set off fireworks to scare away nesting gulls, and positioned solar-powered speakers in the rocks that blast tern vocalizations 24 hours a day - a cacophony of high-pitched squeals, throaty purrs and staccato chatter.

Then they waited.

It's usually a long wait before tern restoration projects show any success. It took three years for terns to start colonies at Eastern Egg Rock and Seal Island.

But at Outer Green, just 12 days after setting up on the island, Martinkovic spotted the first terns scouting the area and courting each other with fanciful flights and gallant offerings of fish. It was, oddly enough, Mother's Day.

"We had one bird trying to offer a fish to a decoy, so it's been pretty interesting to watch them," Martinkovic said.

The first eggs were spotted June 9. "Adam and Eve" were the first to settle down, followed by three nests scattered among the decoys on a southeastern point. Eventually five others appeared in succession along the eastern side of the island.

The first chick hatched July 5.

"I thought they might find the island this year because we saw terns staging on Inner Green last July," Hall said. But he didn't expect a successful nest so soon.

The idea that terns displaced from other islands might relocate to Outer Green seems to be bearing some fruit. Martinkovic has noticed a tern that was banded at Stratton Island hanging around Outer Green.

"I believe there should be some more nests popping here or there because we've noticed more and more terns each day," he said. "A lot of them come here from other islands because of social attraction - safety in numbers - and that's how we keep getting more and more."

So far there have been no predation problems at all. There are no mammals on the island, and the large gulls seem to have moved to neighboring islands, Junk of Pork and Inner Green.

There's even been a pair of roseate terns hanging around.

Only three support sites

There are only three sites in Maine that support roseate terns with any regularity - Stratton Island, Eastern Egg Rock and Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge. Hall said it would be "mind-blowing" to have them nest on Outer Green this year, "but it could happen because the roseate terns on Stratton Island have had a poor season."

Life on Outer Green Island can be challenging for the staff, with summer thunderstorms that give their tents a good shaking and temperatures that, since late April, have ranged from the high 20s to 102 degrees. Even with fulfilling work, breathtaking views and a swimming hole or two, boredom hovers.

"I've read six books, including one on enzymes," Martinkovic deadpanned.

Martinkovic stays on the island full time, aided by Audubon interns who rotate through all seven restoration projects. A new intern and fresh supplies arrive once a week courtesy of Clark Smith of Peaks Island, who volunteers his time and his boat to the project.

Martinkovic and the intern rise at 4:30 a.m. to do a daily bird count and make sure gulls haven't returned to the island, "just kind of making it known that we're still around and we're not leaving yet."

The daily bird counts have revealed that an extraordinary variety of bird life visits the island during the summer, from hummingbirds to flickers and an assortment of warblers. So far the staff has documented 107 species, "remarkable for an island this size," Hall said.

During daily walks around the island, the staff looks for new nests. They search for new eggs and examine the condition of the ones already in the nests, checking to see if there are any chicks pipping, or breaking through the shell. Last week there was an egg with a star fracture, the first sign that a hatch is coming soon.

"We've been waiting for it the last couple of days, but it's taking its time like the first one," Martinkovic said.

Both terns incubate the eggs, but once an egg hatches, one parent - usually the female - stays on the nest to keep the chick warm while the other takes care of the initial feedings. As the demand for food grows, both parents start going on foraging flights.

Flying within a month

At 23 to 25 days, the chicks begin their first short, awkward flights.

"That last few days before they fly, it's really funny to watch," said Hall, who does a comical imitation of a tern chick learning to fly. "They start jumping up and down, flapping their wings, and all of a sudden they're off the ground and they really have no clue what they're doing."

As the chicks become more adept at flying, the parents may move the entire family group to the edge of the island, where the chicks can start accompanying them on foraging flights.

About two weeks after the chicks fledge, family groups start leaving their nesting island and hopscotch together down the coast, stopping at places where they can rest and fuel up for the long migratory journey ahead.

"It's thought that parents and chicks of the year migrate together to the wintering grounds, and they probably learn all they need to know en route to be able to forage on their own," Hall said. "Later in the season, when they are better at flying and maybe they're waiting for their parents to come back with fish, you'll see them hovering over the water and they'll dip down and pick up vegetation or a stick off the water, and those are part of the development skills they'll need to be able to forage on their own."

The summer field season for Audubon's restoration projects officially ends Aug. 12 with a wrap-up meeting that includes everyone who's worked on the seven islands as well as state and federal officials involved in the Gulf of Maine Seabird Working Group.

One topic of discussion likely will be emerging issues with disease or contaminants at some of the state's tern colonies.

"We've lost chicks at both Stratton and Pond Island tern colonies this year, very young chicks," Kress said. "We're just sending specimens out now to determine what the problems are. But that kind of loss just points all the more to the need for more islands because if the terns are in trouble in one place because of disease, they need to relocate and move out until that island's situation improves."

But Outer Green Island will probably be the last seabird restoration project Audubon takes on for a while. Each project costs an average of $60,000 a year to run, and once a project has been launched it's a continuous commitment. If the human presence during nesting season ever ends, gulls simply will take over once again and drive the terns away.

"There is no looking back once you start," Hall said.

Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:

mgoad@pressherald.com

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