NATURE NOTES FROM ACADIA

HERRING GULLS

Easily the most conspicuous of the birds on Mount Desert Island, the Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) has been chosen as a type of wild life symbolic of Acadia National Park (see cover page). Along the entire New England seaboard these large white and pearl-gray birds are familiar to everyone. Only infrequently do they nest south of the state of Maine, but before and after the nesting cares are over they wander for great distances.

Herring Gulls are valuable winged scavengers, garnering their food largely from the tide-areas of the sea. Now and then one can be seen dropping to pick up a clam or sea urchin which the waves have washed ashore. After the prey is seized the bird wings its way to a point above the nearby rocky shore and let's go its hold upon the intended meal. Down it comes, the shell breaks upon the rocks, and the gull returns to its repast. Large numbers of the birds are sometimes seen following the fishing boats, for fish are a favorite article of diet with the Herring Gull. Occasionally, during the blueberry season, great gatherings of these birds alight upon the mountains of the island to feed upon the ripe, low-growing fruit. This, I have been told by some of the local fishermen, is a relatively new kind of food to the gulls. With their steady increase in numbers, especially during the past several years, a branching out in the range of their diet may be the result - a matter of necessity if the greater numbers are to survive.

On Duck Island, a few miles south of the island on which Acadia National Park is situated, the Herring Gulls nest by the hundreds and even thousands. It is a matter on record that a number of years ago these birds which normally nest on the ground took to nesting in the crowns of the evergreen trees as a result of the constant robbing of the nests by fishermen. We visited the island this year in late June, when a great many chicks were just emerging from the eggs, and in the course of a hasty survey found no nests above the ground. The birds there had returned to their usual mode of nesting.

Herring Gulls have very few enemies, the Bald Eagle preying upon them infrequently. In June, beneath the nest of the king of birds, a part of the bill of a Herring Gull and the skull of a crow were found.

- Ranger-Naturalist