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FARMINGTON — The decline of the herring gull population in Maine will be the topic of the first Western Maine Audubon Society sponsored talk of the fall season.
The talk will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, in the North Dining Hall, Olsen Student Center, University of Maine at Farmington. It is free and open to the public.
The herring gull nesting population in the Gulf of Maine has declined 5 percent annually since the 1960s. While gulls traditionally nest on islands, herring gulls have nested on rooftops in Portland since at least the 1970s. Beginning in 2011, in trying to understand these population declines, Noah Perlut has explored the cost and benefits to rooftop nesting by gulls, including studying their reproductive success, diet, local foraging movements and long-distance migration.
The talk will describe the choices these birds are making in response to human habitat change — both in terms of reproduction and movement.
Perlut is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of New England in Biddeford. His research explores how birds adapt to or fail to adapt to human habitat change in places like hayfields, rooftops and managed forests. He teaches field-based classes, exploring the woods and wetlands of southern Maine.
