Lee Harvey, age 15, of So. Portland, Maine, for his question:
What is a murrelet?
Ornothologists insist that the cheerful penguins are birds of the Southern Hemi¬sphere. When you catch your first glimpse of the merry murrelets, you might be tempted to doubt this. Flocks of these birds live and breed in the northern Pacific. In their winter plumage, you could mistake them for midget penguins. But, usually after sunset, they zoom up and away and, of course, no genuine penguin can fly.
The murrelets are small members of the auk family, Alcidae. They are chunky birds, about ten inches long, usually dressed in black and white penguin outfits. During the day they belong to the northern Pacific, where they swim and dive like very frisky ducks, At dusk, they rise on stubby wings, circle around uttering weird cries and take off like rockets to their mysterious inland nesting grounds.
The giant of the alcid family was the great auk, who stood 30 inches tall: Sad to say, these gentle flightless birds were slaughtered without mercy and the lone survivor perished in 1$44. The 22 kinds of surviving alcids are champion fliers that live in or usually near the northern oceans. They include the auks and the aukiets, the mattes and the murrelets, the graceful guillertots and the puffy checked puffins. Some nest on shores around England and as far south as Spain.
The little murrelets favor the north Pacific. They flock among the foggy, wind¬blown Aleutians, along the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia and often as far south as California and Japan. They are web footed sea birds with neat waterproof plumage. Their menu includes shrimp, plankton and a variety of small fishes, especially the silvery launce, which is about the size and shape of a pencil.
Some ornithologists recognize three murrelet species, some four. But all recognize the marbled murrelet, who wears a summer outfit of marbelized browns. This fascinating little sea bird has managed to mystify the most dedicated experts. It seems that nobody has been able to prove where the marbled murrelet nests.
This is surprising, because expert bird watchers study flocks of these birds, merrily diving, and dining throughout the live long day. After sunset they circle aloft and hurtle inland like squadrons of high flying jets, soon lost in the dark misty sky. It is assumed that the murrelets fly home to their nests and either feed the young or exchange places with their mates sitting on the eggs.
Some alcids nest in burrows, others in dense conifers perched aloft on precipitous mountains. Several species floch home to nests crowded together on top of steep cliffs and perilous ledges. But after the sun sets, nobody knows where the marbled murrelet goes.
Several of the larger alcids lay two eggs. But the small, ten inch murrelets lay only one. On a few occasions, the female of the marbled murrelet has been examined and found to contain only one developing egg. Eventually, the young birds fly to the sea, each in the company of two devoted parents.