POPULATION :) G

tentionon precipitouscliffs in searching the outer Maine islandsduring the 1970s Great Cormorants nesting and early 1980s -- to no avail. The large numberof nestsand of im- on New England Coast maturesin lower JerichoBay suggestthat many birds emigratedfrom Canada to- William H. Drury and Jeremy J. Hatch gether in the way an entire colony of Double-crestedCormorants may aban- Hatch saw one immature near Boston. don one island and settle on another. The extirpatedfrom the New Eng- Small numbers of Great Cormorants large numberof immaturebirds seenin INEland SPECIESseacoast OF in seabirdsthe 18th wereand could have been overlooked amongst the 1983and the numberof chicksfledged in 19th centuries,including the Great Cor- Double-crested Cormorants north of Bos- 1983 and 1985 suggestthat reproduction morant (Phalacrocorax carbo), Double- ton because the observers there were not hasbeen highly successful.Conspicuous crestedCormorant (Phalacrocorax auri- searchingfor them (B. Blodgett, pets. increasein the Great Cormorantpopula- tus), Northern Gannet (Sula bassanus), comm.). Immatures have been seen in tion may bring down on them the wrath LabradorDuck (Camptorhynchuslabra- ones and twos in Massachusetts in recent of salmon fishermen, who constitute a dorius), Great Black-backed Gull (Larus summers. powerfulsportsmans' lobby and who re- marinus),Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa Korschgen (1979), did not report gardcormorants as major competitors. tridactyla), Razorbill (Alca torda), Great Great Cormorantsduring his surveysin Auk (Pinguinusimpennis) and Common 1977, and it is unlikely that he missed LITERATURE CITED Murre (Uria aalge). Two of these are them on these islands, becausehe landed now extinct but four have recolonized is- on all three. We did not census lower DRURY. W. H., 1973, 1974. Population lands on the shores of the Gulf of Maine. JerichoBay between 1973 and 1983. Changesin New EnglandSeabirds. Bird- This arti•cleis to report the reestablish- In both Maine and Massachusetts,the Banding 44 (4): 267-313; 45 (1): 1-15. ERSKINE, A. J. 1972. The Great Cormorant ment of one more, Great Cormorant. Great Cormorantswere found nestingon of Eastern Canada. Canadian Wildlife Now only gannetsand kittiwakesremain the flat tops of islandsamong Double- ServicesOccasional.Paper Number 14, 23 absent. crested Cormorants. The islands in Jeri- PP. Characteristically,those species which choBay areat the verymouth of the Bay, HATCH, J. J. 1984. Rapid Increaseof Dou- havereestablished have subsequentlyin- while the Weepecketsare near the head ble-crestedCormorants nesting in south- creased rapidly and expanded their of the Elizabeth Islands chain, but at the ern New England.Am. Birds -- 38: 984- 988. breedingrange. Recently, Hatch (1984) mouth of BuzzardsBay. KORSCHGEN, C. E. 1979. Coastal Water- broughtup-to-date the informationon in- When Erskine (1972) reviewed the bird Colonies: Maine. U.S. Fish and Wild- creasingnumbers and expansionof the status of Great Cormorants in the Marl- life Service,Biological Services Program. breeding range of Double-crestedCor- timesregion, he reportedthem nesting all FWS/OBS -- 79/09 83 pp. morantsin southernNew England. along the easterncoast of Nova Scotia MILTON, G. R. and P. AUSTIN-SMITH. On June 16, 1983, duringa censusof nearly to the southernmosttip. Until the 1983. Changesin the abundanceand dis- tribution of Double-crested Cormorants Arctic Terns (Sterna paradisaea), on recordsreported here, thoseislands seem (Phalacrocorccrauritus) and Great Cor- outer islands in eastern Maine, David to have remained the southernmost morants(P. carbo) in Nova Scotia. Colo- Folger, John Drury, and William Drury breedingsites. The numbersof bothspe- nial Waterbirds 6: 130-138. foundGreat Cormorants nesting on three cies of cormoranthave increasedgreatly islandsin JerichoBay, east of Isle au in southernNova Scotia in recentyears Collegeof the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Haut (Table 1). Of equalimportance was (Milton and Austin-Smith, 1983). Er- Maine 04609 (Drury),Harbor Campus, findingimmature Great Cormorants loaf- skine reportedthat the speciesnests on Univ. of Massachusetts,Boston, Mas- ing on manyislands: 10-15 from Machias steeprock facesand we focussedour at- sachusetts02125 (Hatch). Bay to SchoodicPeninsula, 20-25 in low- er JerichoBay andfive in the approaches Table 1. Numbers of cormorant nestsin Jericho Bay in 1983-1985 to PenobscotBay. We found none be- Double-crested tween PenobscotBay and the mouth of Great Cormorants Cormorants the Kennebec River. Island Name a 1983 1984 1985 1983 b 1985 On June4, 1984, Hatchfound a single nest of Great Cormorantsamong 1135 Southern Mark 0 0 0 105 51 nests of Double-crested Cormorants on Great Spoon 11 10 20 20 25 (5 chicks) (18 chicks) the Weepecket Islands, near Wood's Little Spoon 22 16 38 38 35 Hole in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. (22 chicks) (33 chicks) On July 20, two large and apparently White Horse 13 14 25 I l 2 healthy young were seennear this nest. (29 chicks) No Great Cormorantswere found nesting Black Horse 0 0 0 40 55 in MassachusettsBay (north of Cape TOTALS 46 40 83 214 168 Cod) during a count of Double-crested (27 chicks) (80 chicks) Cormorants(3784 nests),in May 1984. aonlythe islandswith nestingcormorants bno counts of Double-crested Cormorants in 1984

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