On Fri, 11 Aug 1995, Russell Rogers wrote in response to Maureen Ellis:
> I see Marbled Murrelets regularly in summer in the waters around Seattle.
> They are usually in pairs (parent and chick?). I have a little bit harder
> time finding them in the same areas in winter.

At this time of year (that is, roughly the first half of August) adults
and juveniles can be distinguished from one another. Most adults still
have their marbled (brown) look, their alternate (breeding) plumage. Those
that are molting into basic/winter plumage look intermediate between
marbled and gray&white. The rare individual adult that has "completed"
its pre-basic molt should still have very ragged-looking wings, as the
primaries have not fully grown.

The juveniles should be crisply gray (or charcoal) and white, with long,
well-shaped wings. I believe they're skittish (I don't blame them).

As summer progresses and autumn arrives, adults and juveniles are
difficult to impossible to distinguish in the field.

This is fresh in mind because I spent a couple of days last week
assisting with an effort to determine adult:juvenile ratios in the San
Juan Islands. I don't have the results (the field work is continuing this
week), but we saw well over 100 murrelets and I don't think there were
half a dozen juv's. In previous years I think about 6% of murrelets
recorded have been juv's.

This suggests a reason why nobody's jumping up and saying with certainty,
"We *can* recover the threatened population of marbled murrelets."
Reproductive success may be too low to maintain a stable population.

As for distribution in south Puget Sound--I have little to offer. The
first ones I ever saw were off of West Point (is that the right name?)
at Discovery Park during an April long ago. Bear in mind, though, that
this forest-nesting seabird needs suitable habitat within flying distance
of the water you see them on. How much old-growth is within 30 miles or
so of the Seattle/Tacoma shoreline?

Scott Richardson
Olympia
richasar at dfw.wa.gov