ORONO, Maine, Oct. 8 -- University of Maine issued the following news release:
Photo courtesy of Eily Buchanan
On the afternoon of June 19, University of Maine senior Eily Buchanan spotted something peculiar through the narrow window of a wooden shelter while quietly monitoring and photographing seabirds on a midcoast Maine island: a razorbill with a fish in its hatchet-like beak.
Razorbills, black-and-white seabirds, were common sightings during her hours-long data collection sessions on Eastern Egg Rock island, but their beaks were usually empty. After snapping a couple of photos of the bird as it flew past the blind, she saw that it was holding a sand lance, a small, slender silver fish, in its bill. It was the first sign of a major d...