98-01-12, Roger Hoffman writes:

....<snip>....

Fascinating reply Roger. Thanks! Do you have a sense for what happens during
the fledging process of the Marbled Murrelet? As is the case for many alcid
species which nest on seabird cliffs over or near water, the nearly or
entirely flightless fledglings simply drop off the cliff and plop into the
water. Ancient Murrelet chicks have always held a fascination for me when
I've encountered these wee little ping-pong balls of downy fluff with their
parents in attendance bobbing around 200 miles offshore already and sometimes
in some really horrendous wretched rough seas.

Marbled Murrelets at the time of fledging must be to some degree capable of
flight and in perhaps sustained flight over as much as 50 miles(!) through the
forest and overland to reach open water. This has to be an extraordinary feat
perhaps matched by few other species. Most other birds at fledging time do so
in steps. They test their wings and gain strength, then when making the
plunge, usually do so in a few short shaky steps, branch to branch, ledge to
ledge, and ledge to rock, one step at a time, each time gaining more strength
and confidence until they are gone. I've watched young Peregrine Falcons take
the plunge off a rock islet ledge on the central coast of California.
Sometimes, they just launch off and careen down to the rocks below where they
hop around for awhile and little by little manage to fly a few more yards each
time to the next rock, or if they are lucky one might actually make it all the
way gliding across the narrow channel to crash land in the coastal iceplant.
Do you have any idea whether Marbled Murrelets may initially kind of hop-
scotch from branch to branch and tree to tree for awhile, or do they just
launch off in one great leap of faith and go for the full touch down in one
long scary swoop. The answers might be somewhere in recent Marbled Murrelet
literature, but I haven't really been following the nesting/fledging process
very closely.

Another seabird species which I've always thought quite fascinating as I
imagine that first fledging flight is the Hutton's Shearwater (_Puffinus
huttoni_) which nests amongst the rocky talus slopes up high on the steep sub-
alpine and even alpine slopes of the seaward Kaikoura Mountains above 1300m
and well inland on the South Island, New Zealand. They must do so at night as
many fledgling birds wind up onboard the decks of ships. And still one more
quite fascinating fledging seabird is the southern winter nesting Westland
Black Petrel (_Procellaria westlandica_) which nests in the forests on the
west side of New Zealand's South Island, which upon fledging crawls towards
the sea through the forest and brush and across the main West Coast highway
where more than just a few are run over and killed.

Richard Rowlett <Pagodroma at aol.com>
47.56N, 122.13W
(Seattle/Bellevue, WA, USA)
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