We started the day on Appledore Island, just outside Portsmouth Harbor. The Shoals Marine Lab, resident there, traces its history back to 1928. Among the biologists spending the summer there this year were Dr. Elizabeth Craig, Tern Conservation Program Manager. "There are three species that I’m hoping we’re going to see today; the common tern, the roseate tern and the arctic tern." In her orientation she walks through the differences among the species, but all three are long lived, which for birds, means 10-30 year life-spans. And in that time, the terns log some serious miles. After orientation we file onto an inflatable for the short boat ride to White and Seavey islands, home to one of the largest tern colonies in the gulf of Maine, and the only breeding site for these birds in New Hampshire. Project Leader Jen Seavey marvels at the tern's incredible migration distances, "over its lifetime it flies to the moon and back 3 times. 1.5 million miles. A four ounce bird!" Those are stats
We started the day on Appledore Island, just outside Portsmouth Harbor. The Shoals Marine Lab, resident there, traces its history back to 1928. Among the biologists spending the summer there this year were Dr. Elizabeth Craig, Tern Conservation Program Manager. "There are three species that I’m hoping we’re going to see today; the common tern, the roseate tern and the arctic tern." In her orientation she walks through the differences among the species, but all three are long lived, which for