Tweeters,

I suspect that Scott has hit the nail on the head as far as the
distribution of dead Horned Puffins. On the Oregon coast, there are
11 towns with 4000 people or more. (I'm including Astoria and
Tillamook, which are slightly "inland".) On the Washington coast,
there is not one town that size. (Ocean Shores is just short of 4000
people, and Hoquiam and Aberdeen are too far from the open coast to
qualify.) So, better coverage of the coast in Oregon could be the main
reason that more dead puffins are being found there.

On the other hand, it could be that the factors causing mortality of
Horned Puffins are operating mainly off the Oregon coast rather than
the WA coast. It seems unlikely that this northern species is actually
more numerous off OR than off WA.

Persons interested in the status of Horned Puffins in the Pacific
States may be interested in reading an article published by Wayne
Hoffman et al. in 1975 (Western Birds 6:87-94). This article, written
just before a major spring/summer incursion into southern California
in 1975, nonetheless notes the switch from mainly winter records of
dead birds, to mainly spring/summer records of live birds off the West
Coast.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Atkinson <scottratkinson at hotmail.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 12:41 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Re" Dead Puffins


> Tweeters:
>
> How about the simple possibility that the OR coast is being covered
much
> better than that of WA? I mean, think of the northern part of the
WA coast
> in Clallam-Jefferson Counties. A vast area with much more difficult
> drive-up access than much of the OR coast, also surely getting
minimal
> coverage by beachcombing birders, especially at this time of year.
>
> Scott Atkinson
> Lake Stevens
> mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com
>
>