Leach's storm-petrel . On the western Atlantic coast. Leach's petrels 

 breed from Labrador to New England. Information about New England petrel 

 populations is meager because Maine is on the southern edge of the breeding 

 range and colonies tend to be isolated. The nocturnal habits of the birds at 

 nesting sites make them difficult to observe and the entrances to nest 

 burrows are often well concealed by vegetation. Actual counts of all adults 

 at petrel colonies have not been made, and only a small percentage of nesting 

 burrows may have been found. 



At the turn of the century "enormous" colonies were reported on 7 

 islands, "large" colonies on 4 and "small" colonies on 6 islands (Drury 1973). 

 In 1931, Norton (unpublished) reported finding occupied burrows on 12 

 Islands. At that time the colony on Great Duck Island was considered the 

 second largest. Allen (1937) reported that when he revisited 5 islands which 

 had been occupied by petrels in 1931, petrels remained at only 3. Drury 

 (unpublished) has found petrels nesting on 15 islands in Maine including 

 Machias Seal Island. 



The most intensive attempt to estimate nesting populations of the large 

 petrel colonies was performed by Lesser (unpublished) during the summer of 

 1977. Based on quadrat studies, he estimated that Great and Little Duck 

 Islands had 14,000 and 4,000 active nests, respectively. These large 

 colonies, plus the smaller colonies found on 15 other islands, indicate that the 

 petrel population in Maine was at least 19,131 pairs. 



Double-crested cormorant . Double-crested cormorants were extirpated 

 from the New England coast in the early 19th century (Audubon 1835, 

 Dutcher 1901, Mendall 1936). The birds apparently did not breed again in 

 Maine until 1893 when seven nests were found on Black Horse Ledge (Knight 

 1900). Between 1903 and 1923 Norton (1924) found no cormorants nesting 

 between Portland and Cutler, Maine. 



Exactly when the birds began to nest again in Maine is not known, but 

 it was probably about 1925 (Mendall 1936). In 1931 Norton (unpublished) 

 found 875 pairs nesting on five islands. The population increased rapidly 

 between 1925 and 1945 reaching about 13,000 pairs (Figure 9) in 38 colonies 

 by 1943 (Gross 1944). 



Due to the complaints of fishermen, a cormorant control program began 

 in 1944 and continued through 1953 (Gross, unpublished). This program 

 caused a temporary halt in population growth. Drury (1973) estimated that 

 the Maine cormorant population in 1972 was slightly over 13,000 pairs. In the 

 1970's double-crested cormorants have been controlled locally in eastern Maine 

 by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service. This was necessary because cormorants were found to 

 be eating stocked Atlantic smolt released in the spring in selected rivers and 

 streams. During the 1977 field season an estimated 15,333 pairs of 

 cormorants nested in Maine. 



Herons, egrets and glossy ibises . Wading birds have established both 

 coastal and inland nesting colonies in Maine. Coastal colonies are the 

 largest and contain the most species (H. Tyler, unpublished). Historical 



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