Coastal Waterbird Colonies: Cape Elizabeth, Maine to Virginia

摘要

In 1976 and 1977, seabird and wading bird nesting colonies were inventoried along the northeast U.S. coast from Cape Elizabeth, Maine to the Virginia-North Carolina border. A parallel study was conducted for the rocky, island bound coastal region of Maine, north of Cape Elizabeth. Colonies were surveyed and censused from March to July by teams of biologists using aerial and ground-based methods. Approximately 240,982 pairs of waterbirds (28 species) nested at 522 colonies in 1977. The most abundant species, in order, were herring gulls, laughing gulls, common terns, great black-backed gulls, snowy egrets, and black-crowned night herons. Virginia and New Jersey had the greatest area of coastal wetlands and harbored the largest populations of waterbirds.