98-01-13, Chris Maack (73201.3124 at compuserve.com) writes:

<< Richard brought up the interesting subject of how marbled
murrelets fare as they leave the nest... >>


Actually in this case, I think I said *Ancient Murrelets* rather than Marbled
as I don't have any first hand experience with newly fledged Marbled Murrelet
chicks although I did query the Marbled fledging and departure process. As
this thread continues to unfold, I am quite surprised to learn how fast the
young Marbled chicks shed their down, especially when fed well and the fact
that they may be outright abandoned by the parents to which I'm not entirely
so certain. I fear there might be some speculation and mis-information
circulating around here when some of the answers are probably plainly to be
found in literature which I don't have easily at hand. I would imagine that
the Marbled Murrelet biologists who are intimately involved and have conducted
extensive coastal at sea surveys targeting this species probably have a pretty
good fix on this matter of 'abandonment' and could clear it up in very short
order. Some of these biologists are the very one's turning up the odd Long-
billed Murrelet from time to time, so these coastal surveys must be quite
thorough.

If it is generally true, and Marbled Murrelet chicks are abandoned by their
parents, then this is quite the contrast from some of those flightless "tiny
little ping-pong balls of downy fluff" (Ancient Murrelet chicks) that I have
seen 'with their parents' (I presume parents) 150 to 200 nmiles off (south of)
Attu, Agattu, and Buldir in mid-late June to mid-July. Most such encounters
consist of one or two chicks with two adult birds, so it would seem that
Ancient Murrelet chicks are not abandoned by their parents as has been
suggested for Marbled. They are also quite vocal at this time maintaining
little 'peeping' contact noises with the parents. Ditto Common Murres in this
regard. Further, even in their seemingly fragile non-water repellent
featureless gray downy state, they are quite good and unreluctant divers, so
they are much more water resistant then that deceiving appearance might
suggest.

A research cruise in the Southeastern Bering Sea and Bristol Bay this past
summer (mid-July to early August 1997) aboard the NOAA R/V "Miller Freeman"
revealed an unexpected large number of Ancient Murrelets all over the area
making it if not the most common, certainly the most uniformly widespread
encountered species. Numerous encounters involved adults / chicks and
sometimes several 'families' with the chicks forming little 'crches' of maybe
4 to 12 individuals surrounded by the adults. The chicks in this area for the
most part were beyond the tiniest 'ball of fluff' stage observed far at sea
off Attu in years past, having grown to only a slightly smaller size than the
adults. These birds were still clearly juveniles having lost much of the
downy fluff but otherwise beginning to show some features of adult birds and
were capable of flight.

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