BY JOHN RICHARDSON

Portland Press Herald

A penguin-like bird that disappeared from the Maine coast more than a century ago has apparently decided it's time to come back.

Wildlife advocates say they found a murre egg perched on a cliff on Matinicus Rock on Friday. It is the first time the birds have been known to breed south of the Canadian border since the 1870s, and comes after more than a decade of efforts to restore the island's long lost colony, said Stephen Kress, director of the National Audubon Society's seabird restoration program.

"We have been waiting for this for 17 years," Kress said Monday. He said he is confident in the report from staff posted on the remote island, and hopes to reconfirm the discovery officially today.

The group has restored colonies of other seabirds, including the closely related puffin. But the murre (rhymes with fur) was always considered a long shot "because the birds have been gone for so long."

Murres are black-and-white birds that fly as well as swim, sometimes diving hundreds of feet below the surface. They spend most of their lives at sea, but breed and lay eggs on remote rocky islands, where they stand about 14 inches tall and waddle around like penguins.

Most live in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. There are colonies on Grand Manan in New Brunswick and Machias Seal Island at the Canada border. Matinicus, which is 26 miles east of Port Clyde, is at or near the southern end of their range.

"They nest on remote sites. They're typically safe, but with human habitation, they're not," Kress said. "They were the first to go of any of the birds here back in the egg hunting days."

In the 1800s, eggs were collected from the Maine islands for eating, while the birds were shot for their meat.

Matinicus Rock is one of 50 islands in the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and the discovery was also considered a victory by the refuge managers.

"It's definitely a big deal. We've been trying to attract them to Matinicus Rock for years," said Brian Benedict, deputy manager of the refuge. "Everything that we're doing along the coast is trying to maintain the diversity of sea bird nesting colonies. That's really the mission of this refuge."

There is so little remaining nesting habitat for seabirds, that the populations need as many colonies as possible to protect against predators or other threats, the experts said.

Audubon and federal wildlife agencies have been working to restore the offshore bird colonies by placing decoys, fake birds, in historic nesting areas. Researchers also put out fake murre eggs and played recordings of murre colonies on Matinicus Rock for the past 17 breeding seasons.

The egg was found on a cliff by one of the seven interns who live on the island in summer to protect nesting seabirds from gulls and other predators.

"Every year we've been teased by these birds. They come back. They sit with the decoys. They mate with each other," Kress said. "All the signs seemed to be there, but we haven't had the critical mass, apparently."

The egg is believed to be just the beginning.

"We don't know whether there are more eggs or not. The first one is always the hardest one to get," Kress said. "When the razorbill (returned), there was a first egg and then there was more."

Meanwhile, the interns will be looking for another historic reappearance in about a month.

"We'll be protecting (the egg)," Kress said, "and we'll be watching for the chick."