English: Title: The Canadian field-naturalist Identifier: canadianfieldnat1978otta (find matches) Year: 1978 (1970s) Authors: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Subjects: Publisher: Ottawa, Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 1978 Notes Text Appearing After Image: Figure 2. Newly hatched Northern Fulmar on Funk Island, 10 July 1977. Four pairs of fulmars were seen occupying four cliff-ledge sites on 1,3, and 8 June in Bull Gulch just north of Gannet Head on the east side of the island about 1.5 km south of Jackson Gulch. No fulmars were seen in this area from 7 to 12 August. The behavior and temporary site tenacity of these birds suggested they were "prospecting" (Fisher 1952; Nettleship and Lock 1973). Northern Fulmars have been observed on Baccalieu Island as long ago as 1959 (Rice). Future checks on colonization in this area will be made. On 9-10 July 1977 Montevecchi and Porter found three fulmars with eggs on Funk Island, two nesting on flat ground, the other on a ledge about 1.5 m above ground. In the two nests checked, one egg hatched on 10 July (Figure 2), the other pipped on 11 July, indicating that egg-laying occurred toward the end of May. This is consistent with the timing of egg-laying on Baccalieu and in the boreal North Atlantic in general (Fisher 1952). Baccalieu Island is the third island off New- foundland where Northern Fulmars have been found breeding in 4 years, and breeding attempts in Labrador (Nettleship and Lock 1973) and along the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland (L.M. Tuck, personal communication) seem likely. The Northern Fulmars' potential for massive and sustained popu- lation increase as evidenced at colonies in Great Britain during the past and present centuries (Fisher 1952) leaves open the possibility that we may be witnessing the initial stages of what may soon be a population explosion of the species in the boreal Atlantic regions of Canada. Close watch should be kept for further breeding range expansion of these birds, and breeding censuses at known nesting areas should be made regularly. The light-phase plumage of all Northern Fulmars found nesting or "prospecting" in Newfoundland-Labrador suggests that these birds may be immigrating from colonies in western Green- land, Iceland, or Great Britain (Fisher 1952; Salo- monsen 1965; Brown 1970; Tuck 1971) rather than from the Canadian arctic region. Banding data and/or body (especially culmen) measurements (Salomonsen 1965) may help clarify this matter in the future. We are grateful to the Newfoundland Wildlife Division and the Canadian Wildlife Service for permission to work in these locations, to Bruce Bursey and Dr. Leslie M. Tuck for helpful suggestions, and to Raymond Hyde, Felix Noonan, and Linus Walsh for their hospitality on Baccalieu Island. Financial support was provided by National Research Council of Canada Grant No. A0687 awarded to W. A. Montevecchi. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.