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"Marbled" Murrelet in South Carolina
- To: <carolinabirds@acpub.duke.edu>
- Subject: "Marbled" Murrelet in South Carolina
- From: "Mike Turner" <teebird@mindspring.com>
- Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 19:42:50 -0500
- Disposition-Notification-To: "Mike Turner" <teebird@mindspring.com>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Today, Thursday, 12/23, a "Marbled" Murrelet was seen on the Catawba
River above the Fishing Creek Dam near Great Falls, SC. As some of you may
know, the Long-billed Murrelet was split into two species a few years ago;
the Long-billed and Marbled Murrelet. I put the word marbled in quotation
marks because I am not sure which species this is.
I observed the bird from about 1pm to 3:30pm under conditions ranging
from cloudy to sunny skies. The closest view of this bird was from about
200 meters. I was able to draw conclusive size comparisons by seeing this
bird next to Pied-billed Grebes, Horned Grebes, and Bonaparte's Gulls. The
murrelet was smaller than all three of the above species. The murrelet was
a basic-plumaged individual, and exhibited a striking pattern of white and
black, much like a Common Murre. The back was black, it appeared to be very
black, and this dark coloring extended upwards onto and over the back of the
head all the way to the bill. The black reached down the sides of the head
to just below the eye. Very noticeable was the sharp and abrupt delineation
of the black on the head and back and the white underparts. From below the
base of the bill to the throat and chest the murrelet was very white. The
wings were black with white, horizontal, oval-shaped scapulars. There was
also another white patch behind the white scapulars, this second white patch
was shaped more like a square or a rectangle. These two white patches were
separated by a the black on the birds wing. As for this particular
murrelet's "jizz", or general shape impressions, the most noticeable thing
was that it always held its head tilted upwards, at about a forty-five
degree angle, much like the many Red-throated Loons I've seen.
The December 1998 issue of ABA's magazine, "Birding" gives a good
treatment on distinguishing the two species of "Marbled" Murrelet, but the
stated characteristics that differentiate the two species weren't
discernible to me from the distance at which I viewed the bird. For
example, bill length and bill shape as well as flight style didn't help a
bit. The bird never flew, nor did it ever stand up and flap its wings, and
the bird was so far away that I could barely tell that it had a bill, much
less how long or heavy it was!
The bird was relatively stationary the first hour or so. That first
hour the murrelet dove only three times. When you go find this bird
tomorrow hope you catch it at it's "stationary" period. When the bird
started feeding it would dive and I wouldn't see it for as long as five
minutes, and when it did remerge it was often as far away as 100-150 meters
from where it initially dove! Needless to say, once the murrelet dove it
was very hard to keep track of. If the bird is still there tomorrow it
shouldn't be too hard to relocate it provided you have a good scope and a
bit of patience. Yes, a scope is mandatory if you want to see this bird. I
tried locating the murrelet with my binoculars but I was never able to. If
you are really industrious and want to identify this bird as to species, you
are going to need a boat.
One more note on telling the two species apart. The aforementioned
article in "Birding" says that Marbled M. has a "white collar that extends
almost entirely around the hindneck. (Long-billed Murrelet) lacks this
collar." I didn't see this collar, but again, the distance at which I saw
this bird may preclude being able to see it at all. Also, Long-billed M.
has a "faint whitish oval on each side of the nape." Marbled M. supposedly
never has this mark. Well, I didn't see this patch, either, but distance
may again be the reason why. Verdict. There is a "marbled" Murrelet above
the Fishing Creek Dam on the Catawba River, I just don't know which species
it is. Somebody please go there tomorrow and find out what it is. I have
been birding all week, so tomorrow I have to uphold one of my most cherished
Christmas-time rituals...doing all my shopping on Christmas Eve! So I won't
be able to get back out there.
Provided the murrelet is in the same general area, the best viewing
point is the boat landing on the Chester Co. side of the river. The
opposite bank is in Lancaster Co., and as far as I know, there isn't an
access point on that side unless you have a boat and want to make one. Man,
was I jacked when I saw that bird. There was hardly any boat traffic on the
river, and only one parked vehicle with an empty trailer in the boat landing
parking lot. I was fully prepared to pay big bucks to whoever had the boat
that belonged on that empty trailer to take me to that side of the river,
but the dude never showed up. I hope he's alright. Too bad he didn't come
back when I was there. I'm sure he/she could have used the money I was
willing to pay to charter his boat. One more thing. This area is the
Catawba River, but because this area is directly above the dam, it looks
more like large reservoir, so if you pull up there tomorrow and wonder where
the river is, it's there, it's just under all that water.
Mike Turner
Columbia, S.C.
teebird@mindspring.com