The Audubon Societies 



385 



THE CRUISE OF THE AVOCET 



Illustrated from Photographs by Edward H. Forbush 



^LL along the coast of 

 Maine are numerous 

 rocky islands, which 

 afford ideal summer 

 homes for various 

 kinds of seabirds that 

 swarm over the 

 waters of our North 

 Atlantic. In fact, this 

 interesting region 

 is the greatest nursery of sea-fowl on our 

 entire coast. On the thirty-five rookery- 

 islands known to have been occupied the 

 past summer, more sea-birds gathered to 

 rear their young than were to be found 

 in the entire stretch of coast between 

 Maine and the extremity of Florida. 



On July 12, the writer, in company 

 with Mr. Edward H. Forbush, boarded 

 at Bar Harbor the commodious yacht 

 Avocet, owned and commanded by our 

 matchless host, Mr. William P. Wharton. 

 For eight daj's we cruised, visiting in 

 turn one after another of the sea-bird 

 colonies, inspecting the work of the Asso- 

 ciation's fifteen wardens, and making 

 notes on the bird-life that was found. For 

 thirteen years most of these islands have 

 been guarded in summer, and the increase 

 of the sea-bird population has been 

 enormous. 



Hosts of Herring Gulls 



Without doubt, the most numerous 

 water-bird of the region is the Herring 

 Gull — that splendid, long- winged flyer so 

 common about our eastern harbors dur- 

 ing the winter and early spring months. 

 Thirteen islands are now used by them as 

 breeding-places. On the island of No- 

 Man's-Land not less than 30,000 are 

 believed to assemble in summer. The 

 large, handsome eggs are laid in nests on 

 the ground, sometimes among vegetation 

 and often on the bare rocks. On a few of 

 the islands individual Gulls construct 

 bulky nests in the evergreen trees. 



After hatching, the young quickly 



leave the nest and run about among the 

 bushes and rocks at will. When ap- 

 proached, they show a wonderful ability 

 to hide, and we often found them wedged 

 in under boulders, or squatting flat among 

 the thick growths of raspberry bushes. 

 We found it difficult to induce them to 

 stand still to have their photographs 

 taken. It took the three of us about 

 twenty minutes to get the picture of the 

 two downy young shown standing on a 

 rock in one of the accompanying illustra- 

 tions. We discovered, however, that by 

 placing a young Gull on its back and hold- 

 ing it there for a minute or two it would 

 become very docile, and would submit 

 without further resistance to the ordeal of 

 having its picture taken. 



The young suffer much from the attacks 

 of old Gulls. Many dozens were found 

 which had been killed by picking on the 

 head; in fact, on more than one occasion 

 we witnessed a heartless attack of this 

 kind. 



It was rather difficult to approach 

 close enough to the adult birds to get 

 good photographs. Mr. Forbush, how- 

 ever, erected an umbrella-blind in the 

 colony on Great Duck Island, and by 

 means of fish-head bait secured several 

 photographs of hungry Gulls at the very 

 satisfactory distance of six feet. 



Terns and Their Troubles 



Arctic and Common Terns abound in 

 these waters. There are not less than 

 twenty islands where they breed, and small 

 colonies of a few pairs each are scattered 

 about on many isolated ledges of rock. 

 They appear to nest later than the gulls, 

 for we found numbers of eggs unhatched, 

 although some young were sufficiently 

 advanced to fly with ease. Like the Gulls, 

 they often lay their eggs on the bare 

 rocks, with no suggestion of nesting 

 material. From these insecure positions 

 the eggs are often rolled away by the wind. 

 On Eastern Egg Rock several hundred 



