Subject: Murres
Date: Jul 15 22:42:10 1996
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Hi, folks

I got the following message from USFWS biologist in Newport, Oregon =
about the dismal nesting year and adult mortality the Oregon nesting =
Common Murre population was hit with this summer. Hopefully, this =
one-year event will not cause the 1/4 to 1/2 million bird population any =
major long-term decline.

Roy indicated that murres were streaming North past the Columbia River =
mouth, and I am hoping (for personal interest as well as for =
'professional' interest) that the Coastal observers among us can keep =
the list posted on the status of murres moving along the coast into the =
Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the San Juans. Thanks.

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net

----------
From: Roy Lowe
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 1996 11:41 PM
Subject: Re: Murres

Jon:

The recent murre mortality in Oregon was really incredible. You =
probably read
about it in your area because we got national news coverage. The =
die-off was
100% adults and every single one that we handled was a breeding bird as
determined by the presence of a brood patch. Peak mortality occurred =
during the
last 10 days of June and has fallen off now. Dead birds were hitting =
the beach
from Gold Beach to Long Beach, WA. Our typical murre chick die-offs do =
not
begin until mid-July but everyone around here was so accustomed to the =
annual
die-off that they did not understand the significance at first. On our =
4.4 mile
beach transect we recovered 159 dead adult murres the last 17 days of =
June.=20
That beats any single monthly record that we have by at least 3-4 times =
since
1988. Bob Loeffel does a 4.6 mile transect just south of Newport and he
recorded 148 during June which is his all time one-month record for the =
last 19
years! The only thing that comes close was July 1983 (during the El =
Nino of the
century) when he recorded 124. In two weeks we lost more murre than =
breed in
all of Washington but I don't have a number yet. We did an aerial recon =
of
colonies from Crescent City to Cascade Head (rain prevented us from =
going
further north) on 27 June and found a 20-80% abandonment rate of all =
murre
colonies. Some of those abandoned birds have returned to the colonies =
but
obviously they are not going to produce. So far we have seen no chicks =
on the
water in the north state and know on only 2 on the south coast. Other =
signs
that show things are in bad shape include the second lowest number of =
PECO
nesting at our monitoring sites since 1988 and most of the gulls at =
Yaquina Head
have no eggs or young, they're just sitting around. Not surprisingly, =
the sport
Chinook 1st season just closed off Newport and the fishery was a bust.

I understanding from observers at the Columbia River mouth that murres =
are
streaming north in large numbers now so it looks like they are on their =
way. I
hope you guys take good care of them, they need a break.