I decided not to head to Sandy Point Beach at dawn this morning, as the weather forecast was not predicting the cold front to pass through until the early morning hours. Between 9: 15 and 9:30pm last night, I only tallied 9 call notes from migrants overhead.

Therefore, I was quite surprised to see a decent wave of warblers (40-50) moving over the yard between 6:30 and 7:00am this morning. All fairly high, and all heading due west, these birds were certainly migrants moving inland from the coast. Winds were light out of the west this morning, so at least some things were pushed farther east than they would of preferred, and their morning correction was taking some of them over our Pownal yard. I began to wonder what I was missing at Sandy Point! (But, no one I knew was there, so what I don’t know can’t hurt me!)

Instead, I took a stroll at Old Townhouse Park in North Yarmouth. Not much doin’ there today, just a handful of warblers in the woods.

So, I found this cool website today, where you can follow the movements of Greater Shearwaters being tracked by satellite in the North Atlantic.

Also today, I received the September Birding Community E-Bulletin, a monthly email newsletter about birds, birding, and bird conservation. This month, there was one particular article of note about Machias Seal Island:

“MACHIAS SEAL ISLAND DILEMMA

This has been a very difficult season for Arctic Terns at a popular birding site, Machias Seal Island. This tiny Canadian island, located between Maine and New Brunswick, has long supported the largest Downeast colony of Atlantic Puffins in the Gulf of Maine.

The Atlantic Puffins are not in immediate trouble, but Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls have been increasingly devastating to the Arctic Tern colony on Machias Seal Island. Gull predation in recent years, says University of New Brunswick biologist Tony Diamond, has resulted in the loss of the largest Arctic Tern colony in eastern North America.

Five years ago, there were about 2,000 pairs of Arctic Terns and 1,000 pairs of Common Terns on Machias Seal Island. This past nesting season, there were only 900 pairs of Arctic Terns and 213 pairs of Common Terns. Diamond and his researchers estimate that 1,700 nests were destroyed by gull predation this spring.

With declining tern numbers, and lacking aggressive gull-control, researchers fear that the gulls will eventually begin preying on Atlantic Puffin eggs and young. Beyond the threat of gulls, researchers say that the puffins are beginning to also reflect the possible effects of human overfishing. The puffins' diet has shifted from a normal fish diet (such as herring) to less healthful krill and smaller fish. Puffin chicks appear to be growing more slowly and fledging later than in past seasons.

For more information on Machias Seal Island, click here.

Stephen Kress, a researcher who has been working on puffin restoration
efforts elsewhere in the Gulf of Maine (e.g., Seal Island NWR, Matinicus
Rock, Eastern Egg Rock, etc.), where gull control IS practiced, remarked,
"There is no such thing as balance. There is management."

For details on Project Puffin, click here.

The complete e-bulletin is posted on our website, as we do every month.