[obol] RBA: deceased THICK-BILLED MURRE: Clatsop Beaches

[David Bailey]

Yesterday (5 March 2007), while traveling  back south from Astoria I 
drove the beach from Sunset Beach to Gearhart looking for wrecked birds.

I found a dead and recently scavenged THICK-BILLED MURRE north of the 
Del Ray access. The culmen measures 37mm. When I first saw the bird from 
inside my car I thought, "Oh a (Common) Murre, but it looks so black." 
As I got close to it the white mark on the upper mandible was more 
obvious than what I usually see on Common Murres. I am working on 
pictures and getting the bird to the PSU Museum of Vertebrate Biology.

Also wrecked on the beach were a fresh RINOCEROUS AUKLET--very orange 
bill) and the wings of what had to have been an enormous male 
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL.

Live things on the beach included scattered large pink-footed gulls, 
SANDERLINGS, and most interestingly, a wrecked tangle of crab rigging 
with broken pot and deep sea compacted crab floats that had numerous 
white sea anemones attached as well as many live red brittle stars, 
mussels, and a decorator type crap that I am identifying--shape more 
like a squat kelp crab. Long chelipeds and lots of algae attached to 
back, all were size of dimes or quarters.

David

David C. Bailey
baileydc at pdx.edu
Seaside, Oregon