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Dawn Chorus: Ancient Murrelets and other agile aquatics on the Salish Sea [1]
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Date: 2025-01-26
Report is from near the center of the Salish Sea
Winter is the best time for birding on the Salish Sea, as breeding birds come here to feed during their off season. These are inland waters so we don’t see the open oceanic pelagics like albatrosses and petrels, but many other seabirds winter here, like Ancient Murrelets. The Ancients move around as a flock so you can’t count on seeing them on any given boat ride, unlike the Brandt’s cormorants who perch predictably on certain rocks. Ancient Murrelets are always roaming across the water from one spot to another. But after seeing an eBird report of some near an area we can reach in our small slow boat, we went out to see if they were still round.
They were there! This was on January 18. We don’t go more than a couple of miles offshore so we rarely see them in the hundreds but there were small groups of 5-10 as we passed by. Counting birds that are constantly taking off and flying elsewhere, not to mention diving, is tricky, so my total estimation of 60 is almost certainly an undercount since I was looking at who I could see all at once.
Looking at my past eBird reports, I’ve always seen the largest numbers in January. The earliest I’ve seen them is October and the latest is February. On one spectacular January day in 2019 I saw hundreds of them in this several mile stretch off the southern edge of the San Juans. But even a few are a treat to see.
Flying fast in very tight formation is a tipoff for Ancient Murrelets
Their common name comes their grey-feathered backs, which is different from the typical black of other alcids. In breeding plumage they also have white head plumes that give them a distinguished elderly look.
Breeding plumage also includes a black bib, which they molt into starting in early December. That and their white beak is how to differentiate them from winter Marbled Murrelets. Also, Ancients don’t have a white patch on their wings.
The individual on the left is probably an immature, given it’s January.
Not a great picture of the murrelet, but it gives you some sense of scale. It’s a few feet in front of an Olympic gull
Ancient Murrelets, like their cousins the Marbled Murrelets, are tiny birds, about the size of a robin, weighing only 7 ounces. It’s hard to get a sense of size out on the water but it’s mind boggling how such small birds can live in 45°F water. Especially since they are constantly up and flying from one spot to another, flapping their tiny wings so fast you can hardly see the motion.
They always fly right above the surface, using the energy savings of the “ground effect”, which increases lift and reduces drag.
Ancient Murrelets dive fairly shallowly, going for large zooplankton or forage fish. Sources says they can dive to 50’ but I also see them snapping up schooling herring at the surface (krill only come up to the surface at night). A small flock will fly in very tight formation just above the water and all land at once, with lots of splashing, surprising their prey. It’s a distinctive behavior.
Take off….
…splash down
From the time they hatch, Ancient Murrelets are the most aquatic of the seabirds who frequent the Salish Sea.
Red circle= wintering in Salish Sea between Washington state and British Columbia Canada
Blue circle= Haida Gwaii nesting islands
Ancient Murrelets that winter in our waters breed in colonies on Haida Gwaii islands (previously known as the Queen Charlotte islands), 600 miles north off the coast of British Columbia. About half the Haida Gwaii archipelago is protected National and Provincial Park acreage. Murrelets nest in burrows in the temperate rainforest within 300 yards of the coastline, hatching two chicks. After hatching, the parents don’t feed them but talk to them for couple of days. Then they fly to the ocean and call to their chicks, who have to run through the forest, jump into the ocean, and find their parents by sound. The chicks are raised entirely at sea, staying with their parents until independent. If they have a successful nesting season, the parents will stick together and nest together again, often in the same burrow.
Nesting season predation is both aerial and terrestrial. Eagles, peregrine falcons, ravens and Haida goshawks will kill parents and their newly hatched chicks so Ancients only come and go to their burrows at night. A parent might incubate for several days straight before being relieved by its mate. On land, predators are raccoons and rats, neither of which are native to their breeding islands. Raccoons were brought to Haida Gwaii for fur farming and rats stowed away on boats as they always do. After a crash in seabird populations, including Ancient Murrelets, the Haida Nation and the Canadian government implemented aggressive rat eradication programs in Haida Gwaii, both land and air-based. Several islands are now rat-free though that requires ongoing vigilance. A Seabird Haven - On the Canadian Islands of Haida Gwaii the Work to Save the Ancient Murrelet Goes On
There are other threats to Ancient Murrelets and the seabirds in general who frequent our waters. Climate change is warming the ocean which reduces their prey populations. Persistent toxic pollutants like PCBs and DDT banned decades ago continue to recirculate through the marine food web. It was thought that these organochlorides would settle out and become largely sequestered in bottom sediments but research by Washington DFW shows higher concentrations of PCBs in krill and herring than in sediments. Seabirds and marine mammals feeding on plankton and fish pick up doses that bioaccumulate in their tissues, compromising reproduction and immune system functions. The birds are feeding but they may be picking up dangerous pollutants.
🐟
On this same boat trip we saw a variety of other seabirds. My last Dawn Chorus had a section on offshore birds seen during our December 4 boat trip, for comparison.
Among the other alcids that occur here, only Common Murres were abundant this time, though not as many as in early December. Murres move around. About half the murres were in breeding plumage this time.
Full breeding plumage
Transition between non breeding and breeding
Diving
Rhinoceros Auklets are much less common in winter, and even the ubiquitous Pigeon Guillemots are fewer than in summer. Those alcids breed locally and disperse in winter. I did see a few pairs of Marbled Murrelets, which is typical. Tufted Puffins are almost never up here by the islands anymore; I haven’t seen any in years.
Pigeons Guillemot, still in winter plumage
Other birds:
Ducks tend to stay near rocks and islands, even the deep diving kinds like scoters.
Harlequin Ducks, photobombed by a gull
White-winged Scoters
Common Mergansers (using “ground” effect!)
Surf Scoters, Red breasted Mergansers, Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, Horned Grebes were foraging in the shallows by Long Island
All three kinds of cormorants were present. Besides Pelagics, it’s guaranteed to see Brandt’s on Whale Rocks in winter. But they were fewer than last month, already starting to head out to the open ocean coast for nesting.
Some of these Brandt’s are starting to take on their blue breeding season chins
Pair of Double-crested Cormorants
Saw both Common and Pacific loons.
Winter plumage Pacific Loon
And gulls of course, but at this season only two kinds.
Floating driftlogs make great perches
Mew (Short-billed) Gulls
A flurry of gulls, mostly Olympic hybrids
When you see gulls flying around like that it means an eagle is in the vicinity. I saw several on this trip, not surprising at this time of year.
What looked like an eagle perched on the signpost at Hall island (with Kulshan in the background), actually turned out to be…
… a pair of eagles, as seen from this other direction as we went by.
Heading back to the bay, the birds became fewer. Seabirds mostly prefer being farther from shore and in deeper water.
But a pretty winter’s day, as we returned to the dock
The Dawn Chorus is now open for your birdy reports of the week.
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