Field Notes Doug Bell August 12, 1989 wreck, run up on the reef at Middleton Island during WW II because it was overloaded with iron & was breaking up, was covered in cormorants - they outlined the entire ship. Quite eerie in the fog. Most of the cormorant nests had nearly fledged young. Pelagic Cormorants. There were still Black-legged Kittiwakes nesting on the ship (about 40 pairs), but only the nests inside the ship, along various steel beams, had young. I counted 11 nearly fledged chicks. Brian Fudely doesn't think these chicks will make it. The gulls will get them. I saw Glaucous-winged gulls moving about the ship - as if hunting. It was strange to be inside the ship, with its gaping holes & overgrown decks, with Tufted Puffin burrows, and everywhere wet, dripping water. At the stern I surprised an incoming Tufted Puffin who dropped his load-load of fish and then croaked into some pipes. I screamed after him but he escaped into a pipe. I left the ship, went over to a chair-sized piece of driftwood and sat down to watch the coming & going of seabirds. It was about 4:20pm before dusk, but it was thick fog (insolubly < 500 ft). Many Pelagic Cormorants, G/W Gulls, and Tufted Puffins coming & going. Kittiwakes as well. Surprised to see a few small numbers of Common Murres moving to land from the cliffs, as well as Rhino Auklets just barely skimming the Marsh tops as they headed out to sea. It seemed as if Puffin