Table 14-7. Percentage of Total Nesting Pairs of Seabirds Breeding on 

 126 Major Islands in Coastal Maine During 1977 



Common name Regions Total 



Leach's storm petrel 



Double-crested cormorant 



Common eider 



Great black-backed gull 



Herring gull 



Laughing gull 



Common tern 



Arctic tern 



Roseate tern 



Razorbill 



Black guillemot 



Common puffin 



TOTAL ISLANDS 



11 5 



7 1 

 5 6 



8 2 



10 17 

 21 

 44 



17 8 20 46 19 17 127 



a Korschgen 1979. 



Region 2 has 8 major nesting islands. The 5 most important are North 

 Sugarloaf Island, White Island, Heron Island, Pumpkin Island, and Pond Island. 

 North Sugarloaf supports a large mixed colony of arctic, roseate, and common 

 terns, and once supported laughing gulls. It is particularly vulnerable to 

 human disturbance because it is located near the mainland in a high-use 

 recreation area (Popham Beach State Park). The only least terns nesting in 

 the characterization area nest in this region at Popham Beach and along 

 Sprague River Beach. Further details on these two locations can be found in 

 Dorr (1976a) and Lee (1977). The Maine Audubon Society monitors populations 

 in these two colonies. 



Region 3 has 20 major nesting islands. The five most important include 

 Killick Stone Island, The Brothers Island, Western Egg Rock, Metinic Green 

 Island, and Metinic Island. Currently region 3 supports fewer seabirds than 

 in the past. For example, this region formerly supported the southernmost 

 breeding colony of common puffins (Eastern Egg Rock) and several additional 

 colonies of Leach's storm petrels. It is now the southernmost breeding area 

 in Maine for Leach's storm petrels. 



Region 4 has 46 major seabird islands. Among the regions it has the greatest 

 number of nesting islands for all species except common, roseate, and least 

 terns, and the greatest number of nesting pairs for all species except terns, 

 great black-backed and laughing gulls, and Leach's storm petrels. The most 

 important nesting island in Maine, Matinicus Rock, is in region 4. It has 



14-14 



