ML646452499

Observation details

Brachyramphus murrelet that suggests Kittlitz's... This was a very brief observation, perhaps less than 1 second. I was working on photographing a group of Ancient Murrelets that were near the boat but were diving frequently. At one point, after they all dove, I glanced around and saw a distant pair of what I presumed to be MAMU. I swung my camera around and just as I hit the shutter button I caught the flash of white on the face of the bird on the left through my camera lens. I did not see the birds through binoculars, and I did not see any more detail than what the photo shows, and then the two birds immediately dove. I did not get any other photos of these birds, and never saw them again despite lingering in the area for more than 20 minutes. I can only assume that they resurfaced and flew away without me seeing them and this may well have happened while I foolishly resumed photographing Ancient Murrelets after they came back up closer to the boat... I provide two versions of the same image, one uncropped and unedited, and the other cropped and with slightly adjusted contrast and sharpness. I was using a 400mm lens with a doubler for a total focal length of 679mm.

Additional species

• Marbled Murrelet Brachyramphus marmoratus