#nesting colony

Matinicus Rock Light, Penobscot Bay, Matinicus, Maine. Hunting and eating puffins was common practice in Maine over 100 years ago. The first lighthouse keepers on the rock were also wardens, hired by The American Ornithologists Union. They were tasked with protecting The United State's last remaining pair of Atlantic puffins, as well as many other commonly hunted seabird species. Today, Matinicus Rock is owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and is cooperatively managed by the National Audubon Society and MCINWR. Thanks to their work and the work of Project Puffin, there are over 500 pairs of nesting puffins, plus 400 pairs of razorbills, 1,000 pairs of terns, about 700 pairs of laughing gulls, and more.

Machias Seal Island Light, disputed water between the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy, Maine/New Brunswick. The lighthouse on Machias Seal Island is staffed by the Canadian Coast Guard. The island and its surrounding waters were declared a bird sanctuary in 1944. Its home to largest colony of puffins on the Atlantic Coast (south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence). During nesting season researchers reside on the island, keeping watch over the thousands of puffins, razorbills, murrs and other sea birds laying eggs and raising chicks. Machias Seal also attracts a lot of bird voyeurs from both sides of the bay, for that reason there also a resident warden on the island.

This is the first photo of a newly-discovered 9,000-strong emperor penguin colony on Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast. The hidden colony of has received its first human visitors. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey and US colleagues discovered the colony from satellite images. The birds' toilet habits gave away their location, by leaving faecal stains on the ice. Three experts from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station have now become the first people to visit and photograph the colony. Picture: International Polar Foundation/PA (via Pictures of the day: 10 January 2013 - Telegraph)