ML612398746

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Others spotted a pair of murrelets as we cruised across the northern part of the Santa Cruz Basin about 10½ kilometers south of the southern shore of the island at 33° 52’ 00.39” N, 119° 46’ 21.84” W. We saw these birds only briefly and at a distance before they flew off and disappeared. After some searching, we relocated these birds on the water about 1.4 kilometers west-northwest of our initial position at 33° 52’ 13.72” N, 119° 47’ 14.90” W, where they permitted a somewhat closer approach, allowing us to get reasonably decent views as they swam at the surface before flying off again. Although we were able to get better views of the birds when they took flight, it was mostly through examination of photos that we saw the underwing pattern and the spur at the side of the neck. My views of the birds on the water were sufficient to see that these were small alcids with bodies that sat low in the water, short tails that were cocked upward revealing the undertail coverts, and relatively small heads with a somewhat flat-crowned appearance, short necks that were moderately stocky, and slim, relatively short bills that my photos show to have been somewhat longer than those of the Scripps’s Murrelets. When seen on the water, it was clear that these birds were characterized by dark upperparts on which the forehead, crown, back and sides of the neck, and the entire upperparts, closed wings, and what I could see of the tail were uniformly black. Contrasting with the black upperparts was the bright white of the throat, the lower part of the face, and the foreneck and breast. The undertail coverts were also white, but these birds sat sufficiently low in the water that I was unable to see the underparts until they flew off. I did not see any white before the eye, but I was unable to see in the field the location of the demarcation between the black and white as it crossed the face. I had a hard time seeing the underwing pattern when these birds took flight, but I did not think they were strikingly white, and my photos indeed show that the underwing coverts were almost entirely black. My photos also show a small wedge of black that extended down from the side of the neck onto the side of the breast, but I failed altogether to note this in the field.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS R7

Lens

RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM

ISO

500

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1950 pixels x 1300 pixels

Original file size

1.55 MB