#common murres

[changeinenthalpy]

Oh no what do BIRDS look like?

Reference:

[protectrightwhales]

Newfoundland Oil Spill Largest in Province’s History

We have just released a new report on the oil spill that took place in Newfoundland back in November.  This is an important issue that unfortunately has not received the coverage it should, especially in the US. Many species, including North Atlantic right whales, are at risk from this spill and action must be taken to prevent these types of disasters from happening in the first place.

A group of thick-billed murres on a ledge in Scandinavia. Thick-billed murres have been affected by the spill and continue to be at risk. credit: Ron Knight via Wikimedia. full album available on Flickr

The largest oil spill in the history of the province of Newfoundland occurred 217 miles off the southeast coast of Saint John's, the capital of Newfoundland, on November 16, 2018. It happened at the SeaRose offshore oil rig owned by Husky Energy in the White Rose oilfield as they attempted to restart production during a brutal storm. Production had been shut down the day before on the 15th due to the storm, which was noted as being the most intense storm on the planet at that time, but the company recklessly and irresponsibly tried to start it back up even though there were still 28 foot high waves. 

Full Report: http://www.protectrightwhales.com/2018/12_13_newfoundland_oil_spill

[montereybayaquarium]

Think your spring cleaning is tough? Try scrubbing the rocks with a pair of murres supervising. Better not wing it!

It might be easy to mistake these seabirds for penguins, with their white bellies, dark heads and wings, and upright posture. But they’re actually common murres! Common murres are seabirds that spend eight or nine months of each year continuously at sea. Their short wings are perfect for diving and "flying" under water.

[rjzimmerman]

A Marine Heatwave Killed 4 Million of Alaska’s Murre Seabirds. (EcoWatch)

Common murres clustered together on a cliff ledge at Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge on July 30, 2019. Brie Drummond / USFWS.

Comparison of common murre colony on a census plot, South Island, Semidi Islands, Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, before and after the 2015-2016 marine heatwave. The top image shows the colony in 2014, and the bottom image shows the colony in 2021. USFWS.

We worry about the effects of climate change on human health and survival. But, because we co-exist on Earth and share it with wildlife and plants, we should also be worried about the effects on other species, plants and animals. Moreover, the worry shouldn't be limited to the obvious climate change occurrences, such as heat waves and floods and their effects on the food chain, but also on the spread of pathogens from areas where immunity exists to new areas where immunity may not exist. Recent media reports of the deaths of zoo animals from avian flu (not attributable to climate change, but citing as an example) reinforce that concern.

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Beginning in late fall 2014 and lasting into 2016, an anomalous, massive marine heatwave nicknamed “the Blob” developed off the western coast of the U.S., covering all of Alaska’s coastwater and extending as far south as Southern California, raising ocean temperatures by several degrees Celsius.

The Blob had an extreme effect on Alaska in particular. According to a study released Thursday, it resulted in the deaths of roughly four million common murres — one of Alaska’s most prominent seabirds — representing a decline of more than half of the state’s entire population.

“We’ve never seen a bird die-off nearly this big — or really any non-fish vertebrate,” Heather Renner, a Fish and Wildlife Service supervisory wildlife biologist at Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and first study author, said in a video interview.

The team kept track of murre populations across 13 breeding colonies and over three distinct periods: pre-heatwave (2008-2014), heatwave (2014-2016) and post-heatwave (2017-2022), to measure population trends.

The study authors wrote that the heatwave had an enormous effect on key habitat-forming species, like corals and kelps, which triggered cascading bottom-up harm toward the top of the food chain.

Common murres rely on fish as a food source, but the fish they normally prey on were largely absent due to the cascading effects of the heatwave, making the most likely cause of the die-off a mass-starvation event.

Most of the birds died during the winter months, Renner said, and although we don’t know exactly what the murres eat in the winter, it’s likely a combination of forage fish, juvenile pollock and krill.

[thinkmanythingsofit]

Have you heard about guillemots/ common murres jumping off of cliffs before they can fly and surviving hitting the rocks about 40m down by being very fluffy? 

In several places scientists collect the babies at the rocky beach, weigh them and put a bird ring on their feet before releasing them to the ocean where they will find their parents waiting for them by identifying their voices out of thousands of other birds calling for their chicks. 

It’s the most amazing experience to be there and collect the little guys. 

This year they put up a live cam up on the cliffs. Today I saw 3 chicks on the upper cliff and they will jump sometime during the next 2-3 weeks, during sunset middle european time, so between 10pm and midnight. 

Take a look in the evening and you might catch them jumping :D 

https://www.wwf.se/djur/sillgrissla/#livesandning

[volk-morya]

Common murres, Yaquina Head Lighthouse

1 April 2018

[oceanodroma-blog1]

Common Murres

Johnstone Strait, British Columbia

[montereybayaquarium]

Murre to love! Common murres spend most of their lives at sea, only returning to land to nest high on cliffs. Listen to our latest podcast to learn more about the unusual shape of their eggs--and what scientists are doing to help murre populations grow!