[obol] Alcids blown off course...

[DAVID IRONS]

I don't think it is fair to assume that inland alcids are "wrecked".  It is 
true that alcids, particularly Long-billed and Ancient Murrelets, are 
inclined to show up all over the N. American continent and most, but not 
all, of these records are from Fall.  However, if you go back and look at 
the occurrences of these species inland, I think you'll find that very few 
are attributable to storm systems.  In the case of storms off the Pacific, 
most lack the intensity to push coastal birds inland.  Strong storms 
generally lose intensity quite quickly once you get more than 50 miles 
inland.  The most recent system (which probably can be blamed for the Common 
Murre found near Ollala, Douglas Co), produced peak winds of 100+mph along 
the coast, 50-60mph peak winds in the Willamette Valley and yet east of the 
Cascades the storm was a non-event.  Historically, it takes a pretty major 
storm to deposit pelagic species even as far east as the Willamette Valley 
and generally speaking the storm-wrecked birds are things like phalaropes, 
storm-petrels and gulls that spend much of their life on the wing.  In my 
experience, alcids are rarely if ever a component in such events.

In my opinion, inland alcids might be better catergorized along with inland 
records of scoters, jaegers and Sabine's Gulls.  The overwhelming majority 
of these birds spend their non-breeding seasons over the open ocean or along 
the outer coastlines.  However, there is a small fraction of each population 
that moves south across the interior N. American continent each fall.  
Perhaps weather factors trigger movements along the inland routes, but these 
movements are annual and tend to occur within predictable date ranges.  
Fallouts from these movements tend to occur primarily at large bodies of 
water and more often than not the "pelagic" species are observed out over 
the middle of the host lake or reservoir far from shore.  Jaegers and 
Sabine's Gulls can be spotted at great distance because they are fairly 
decent sized and they fly around a lot.  Sabine's gulls are conspicuous 
because of their unique wing pattern.  Jaegers are conspicuous because they 
are usually chasing gulls.  Long-billed and Ancient Murrelets are 
inconspicuous because they are small and spend most of their time sitting on 
the water.  Using a local example, a small alcid could easily spend weeks in 
the middle of Fern Ridge Reservoir and never be detected by birders.  In 
southern Illinois there is a very large reservoir called Lake Carlyle.  Each 
fall local birders charter a boat and make a "pelagic trip" out to the 
middle of the lake.  Sabine's Gulls and jaegers are found every year and yet 
these birds are not detected from shore most years and I believe there is an 
Ancient Murrelet record for Lake Carlyle.

Dave Irons
Eugene, OR



>From: Lars and Gail Norgren <gnorgren at earthlink.net>
>To: conserve at tidelink.net
>CC: obol <obol at lists.oregonstate.edu>
>Subject: Re: [obol] Alcids blown off course...
>Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:23:24 -0800
>
>       The Midwest is liberally dotted with
>wrecked Alcids, including the Long-billed
>Murrelet, the FAR EASTERN analogue of our
>Marbled Murrelet. For those of you familiar
>with The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls
>Wilder, *The Long Winter* documents a diminutive
>alcid that Pa Ingalls rescued from their haystack
>at the onset of the first blizzard, probably in
>late October. When the storm cleared they set
>the live bird onto the as yet unfrozen waters
>of Silver Lake and it flew off to an unknown fate.
>DeSmet, South Dakota is not far from the Minnesota
>state line.      Lars Norgren
>On Dec 18, 2006, at 6:21 AM, Conservation For The Oregon Coast wrote:
>
> > Good morning all....
> >
> > My father visited this weekend, we are moving and could use all the
> > help we could get. He brought a dead Common Murre out to our new place
> > in the Charleston area. He explained that he found it on a road near
> > his home in Olalla (in between Camas Valley and Winston off of highway
> > 42). This got me to wondering how far inland is the normal for finding
> > birds blown off the coast? Has anyone else found these type of sea
> > birds this far inland (or even further)?
> >
> > Thanks everyone, have a great day....
> >
> > Jason in Charleston (aka Jason in Lakeside)
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