Subject: Re: Cannon Beach
Date: Dec 21 10:55:11 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


>Having spent the last few days at Cannon beach I checked out the
>dead birds on the beach - several were large as a gull, dark,
>had a hooked beak, yellow, with a tube on the top on the upper
>third of the bill - is this some kind ofshearwater?
>
>Marie Churney
>Pacific Lutheran University
>Tacoma Wn 98447

Northern Fulmar, by far the most common bird in the "wreck" of dead birds
all along Northwest beaches in December. There seemed to be very few from
the mid December storm; most washed up early in the month, and many
appeared in protected waters where they're not usually seen.

As far as I know, there is still no evidence pertaining to why so many
fulmars died, and smaller numbers of many other species. The simplest
explanation is that food resources out there are scarce, and a big storm
that prevents birds from feeding for a couple of days might be enough to
bring on starvation. I can't come up with another explanation. Recall
that birds such as fulmars are adapted to living in the North Pacific
Ocean, with all its storms. However, a normal part of the existence of a
high-latitude seabird may be substantial storm-induced mortality.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416