In a message dated 96-01-09 23:17:27 EST, Jack Bowling writes:

>
>This is meant mainly for Richard Rowlett but also anyone else with
>knowledge on the subject: what is the main foraging strategy of N. Fulmar
>(and other tubenoses)? Is their main prey surfacing nocturnal animals such
>as squid?

Actually, Dennis should have some input on this. Northern fulmars are mostly
opportunistic feeders and scavengers. I am not certain about their normal
*unbiased* nocturnal habits. Certainly the assorted biomass rises toward the
surface at night and some species do feed almost exclusively at night. The
swallow-tailed gull is a good example, feeding on nocturnal mectophids
(laternfish). I tend to think that most of the larger tubenoses are
primarily daylight feeders unless food is around a lighted fishing vessel at
night. This comes from a lot of first hand experience in the former vast
foreign fishing fleets in Alaska in the mid-1980's. Northern Fulmars
scavenged around the vessels 24 hours a day as long as fish were being
cleaned and offal discarded.

On October 23, 1983 (it's nice to access my notes so quick), we had a huge
aggregation of albatross around a South Korean longliner I was monitoring in
the Gulf of Alaska off Kodiak, feeding on discarded heads of sablefish (black
cod). At night, the birds would settle down on the water in little rafts and
just *roost* I guess. The fishing and cleaning went on all night, and only
the thousands of fulmars were around under the lights. At first light, I
made a count of albatross' around the boat -- 3000 black-footed, 600 Laysan,
and 7 short-tailed (in one group), all in little rafts within a couple of
miles of the boat. With daylight, they were all up and joining the frenzy
near the boat.

During the breeding season, most burrowing tubenose and alcid species return
to those sites under the cover or darkness, lending support to concentrated
diurnal feeding, perhaps over a period of a few days for such wide ranging
species of _Pterodroma_. One certainly can see that among alcids for
example, streaming out to sea enmass in the early morning, commuting by the
millions off Buldir in the Aleutians, AK, and lesser numbers but no less
impressive around Cordell Banks, CA, and countless other areas to favored
feeding grounds, then all heading *home* in the evening.

God! Way to verbose here -- enough! cool it! Sorry!
.................................. *Brevity is the Soul of Ambiguity* <H.
Curl> :))

>If so, do they have to have relatively flat seas in order to
>feed successfully? The forwarded note from Gary Kaiser saying that the
>wrecked specimens he had seen were emaciated lends credence to the
>starvation/weather theory being the major cause of the fulmar deaths i.e.
>storm force winds produced seas "lumpy" enough to prevent feeding ->
>starving birds then either fell to the sea nearshore and were swept
>onshore by wave action or were "wrecked" onshore and succumbed to either
>wind/weather damage or "exposure" on land.


Most tubenoses, at least anything larger than a storm petrel are quite well
adapted for a life where wind is an asset. And storm petrels do OK too.
Wind and rough seas churn up the surface and food upon which they feed.
They seem to be at a much greater disadvantage when conditions are calm.
Flight becomes more of an expenditure of energy and some food settles below
the surface out of sight and reach. This is partly why you see so many
seabirds sitting around resting in calm conditions.

With that in mind for those of you heading out of Westport this weekend in
hopes of finding mottled petrel, your best chance will occur when all of you
are puking your guts out and the boat is barely able to stay afloat, and when
someone manages to lift their head long enough the slurp one out as it goes
whizzing by. Mottled petrel is definitely a wind-borne species, even more
than most. Even in places where they can be relatively common (e.g. off the
western Aleutians in summer, or New Zealand), they can be hard to find on
calm days, and are frequently encountered rafted up in little flocks here and
there. On the other hand, :) maybe you'll get lucky and find one of those
in Gray's Canyon sitting on a calm glassy sea.

As for the fulmar deaths along the NW Coast in early December, I have heard
nothing conclusive yet. It was the Washington State Fish & Game that
collected several hundred from the Ocean Shores area and sent them off to
various places for analysis. I'd love to hear from any of you folks if you
have any information yet. I spoke with Carol Spa and Richard Droker at the
Monday Seattle WOS meeting regarding specimens they had obtained from the
beach and an offshore expedition, and gathered that emaciation through
starvation did NOT appear to be the cause. Thus, the big 03 Dec storm may
have been only part of a larger picture. Periodically there are mass die
offs of some seabird species for a variety of reasons. The fact that
northern fulmars along the NW coast in disproportionate large numbers
compared to a mere sprinkling of other species suggests that some other
factor than just a storm was involved.

That smattering of other species could well have been sick or weakened birds
and a few that just lost it, and got knocked down into tumbling giant seas.
There were at least three Laysan Albatross (two in Washington, one in
Oregon) that I know of and sense as a bit curious.

Richard Rowlett <pagodroma at aol.com>
Bellevue, WA, USA