Hi,
I was birding at the Edmonds Fishing Pier this morning with Dennis Duffy and Ted Petersen. At about 9:15 a.m. Dennis drew our attention to an odd looking alcid. After a short while we concluded it was a Thick-billed Murre, swimming about 100 yards off the fishing pier.

The bird was mostly in non-breeding plumage. The bird had an obvious shorter bill and the black was darker than on Common Murre. The dark head and back contrasted with brilliant white flanks. When it flew it showed all white under-parts. We were able to observe the demarcation between the black head and the white breast - which formed an inverted white "V" into the black below the chin. When it raised its wings it was black and grey on the under-wing. There were traces of grey/white around the throat. The bird was around about 10 minutes and dived several times. After about 10 minutes the bird took off and flew south. Unfortunately nobody had a camera. Cheers, Steve

Steve Pink
Edmonds, WA
mailto: pirangas at hotmail.com