Pond Island National Wildlife Refuge

Pond Island NWR
P.O. Box 279
Milbridge, ME 04658
Phone: 207-546-2124
Email: r5rw_pmnwr@fws.gov

Pond Island NWR is a 10-acre treeless island located about 16 miles northeast of Portland, ME, in the town of Popham Beach, Sagadahoc County.

The island is vegetated with mixed grasses and shrubs that host a variety of nesting seabirds, including eider ducks, and herring and black-backed gulls. It also provides habitat for migrating waterfowl, and shorebirds. In the early 1970's the area was identified for its value to nesting common terns and Leach's storm-petrels. Neither of these species had been observed since the early 1980's when nesting gulls took over the island.

In 1996 a tern restoration program was initiated on Pond Island. Through a cooperative agreement the National Audubon Society has manned the site from mid-May to August monitoring the seabird response to gull control and active social attraction through the use of decoys and sound systems. In 1997 five common terns nested on Pond Island after a 60-year absence.