Sunny

Appledore Island is sunny today, and we are enjoying a beautiful afternoon. The USCG vessel Marcus Hanna is steaming by after checking the buoys around the Isles of Shoals. The Marcus Hanna is a 175' Keeper-class buoy tender based in South Portland Maine. It is named for Marcus Hanna, a lighthouse keeper who saved two sailors at Cape Elizabeth light in 1885. Hanna also won the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Civil War.

Fledgling Gulls

Greetings from Appledore Island, where the fledgling gulls are increasingly independent from their parents. It is always interesting to see them at this stage: the parents have stopped feeding them for the most part, but fledglings still beg for food. Some are standing on the roof of K-House with the adult gulls - it is clearly a desirable place to be but is still a big flight to get up there. Others are sitting on the water in Babb's Cove, learning to feed on their own.

We look forward to seeing the final cut of our new high-def video on gull behavior, A Gull's World. I will keep you posted as the project moves forward and the release nears.

UPDATE: Our terrific gull video on gull behavior was released last month as "Signals for Survival" and you can order it from Sinauer Associates: http://www.sinauer.com/detail.php?id=3594