Table 14-9. (Concluded) 



Major 

 feeding habitats 



and common names 



Common murre 

 Thick-billed murre 

 Common puffin 



0=negligible or infrequently used; l=frequently used; 2=pref erred food 



Birds that feed on the wing, such as terns and petrels, have difficulty 

 feeding during periods of bad weather (Dunn 1973). Rough seas may also 

 prevent diving species from feeding. Many common murres have perished after 

 prolonged periods of bad weather in Alaska (Sealy 1973). 



Nesting habits . Along the Maine coast nesting habitat may be limiting for 

 Leach's storm petrel, least terns, and common loons. Petrels nest on islands 

 in underground burrows that they themselves excavate. Excavation is easier in 

 the duff under spruce-fir forests than in the sod on treeless islands. 

 Several islands formerly used by nesting petrels have been cleared of timber 

 and burned, or grazed by sheep, resulting in the development of thick, 

 impenetrable sod. These islands are now uninhabitated or have very small 

 breeding colonies [i.e., Wooden Ball, Little Green and Large Green Islands 

 (region 4), Libby Island and the Brothers Island (region 6), and 14 others 

 summarized by Drury (1973)] . 



Least terns prefer to nest on sand beaches. The few that are present in Maine 

 are found primarily on the mainland (region 4) , where predation and human 

 disturbance are high. They have never been abundant in Maine. 



Because of the large number of islands along coastal Maine, the availability 

 of nesting habitat should be adequate for most of the other species of 

 seabirds. Apparently arctic, common, and roseate terns, laughing gulls, and 

 possibly puffins and razorbills, require islands free of nesting herring and 



14-23 



10-80 



