Hi, Alan and everyone else.

The criteria I was using to ID Marbled Murrelets at Pt. No Point was the
pattern of white. Since they were with Common Murres, I could be pretty
certain of size, so I looked at the throat and how much white was on the
neck (I centered my attention there because I was hoping to see black as
in Ancient Murrelet). I remembered Tom Schooley telling me Marbleds are
usually in pairs and Ancients usually in flocks so I had my hopes up that
the ones just out of bin range were Ancient. The ones in front didn't
seem to be flocking, more like solitary or pairs (I think I saw four or
five of them and about twice as many Common Murres, not including the
murres in with the flock of smaller alcids), but I didn't feel confident
just using that to identify them and tried to get a good look at field
marks, which I did.
I've seen a few Marbled Murrelets close up (thank you, Michael
Hobbs!) and feel confident what I saw at Pt. No Point were Marbleds, but
the probable Ancient flock was too far away to see things like bill or
the contrast between back and head. I may have good binoculars, but they
still are only 10X.

Thanks again for the advice, Alan.

Happy bird-day,
Ken

Ken Gale
New York City
nuffsaid at escape.com