Auk-Ward Moments

By Mary Jane Schramm

     He gazed up at his lady-love who, Rapunzel-like, awaited him far above. She was  tucked securely in a crevice on the steep rock wall whose entrance offered no safe landing space for an aerial approach. Indeed, the pair engineered it to be defensible against nest raiders, excavating it with their powerful claws. So, like an avian Romeo, the male began to scale the fog-slicked cliff face, using sharp-nailed feet like crampons, fluttering his short but powerful wings for added lift and balance. Reunited, they observed their ritual greetings and he settled onto their pair of eggs, warm and smooth. Fishing had been good, and it was now his mate’s turn to replenish and refresh. Meet our coastal “sea pigeons”, or Pigeon Guillemots, Cepphus columba.

AUKING THE AUK:

Members of the auk family alcidae, Pigeon Guillemots are cousins to puffins, murres and murrelets,  auks and auklets, and dovekies. They are ‘ringers” for the unrelated landlubbing rock dove, or common pigeon. Our “PIGU” is a compactly built seabird whose unisex jet-black breeding plumage is sharply accented by white wing patches with a black comma-shaped blaze. Winter plumage is mostly white below and dull black above, similar to immatures birds. Year-round it sports bright crimson on its legs and feet, and inside its mouth. About the size and shape of a large Idaho potato, roughly 12 to 14 inches, it weighs over a pound. Calls include high pitched peeps accelerating into staccato trills that taper off, and whistling alarm calls: visit Sounds.

REAL ESTATE MATTERS: 

The Pigeon Guillemot’s range describes a huge arc of nearshore waters across the North Pacific, from Baja California, Mexico, north along the US and Canadian west coasts into Arctic waters, and across to Eastern Russia into northern Japan. It prefers wild rocky coasts and islands, but human development has created alternate habitats. Nearshore, shallow water and tide pool feeders, these guillemots frequent piers and harbor breakwaters; in fact, Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay hosts a major guillemot colony. 

REPRODUCTION:

Pigeon Guillemots are atypical alcids, often laying two eggs, vs. only one. Both sexes tend the nest and young intensively, defending them by combat if threats fail, using sharp bills and sharper nails. PIGU nestlings fledge between one and two months of age as natural swimmers and divers; flight skills take a bit longer.

SURVIVORS! 

Pigeon guillemots, numbering nearly a half-million worldwide, are listed as a Species of Least Concern. However, they are highly sensitive to periodic low ocean productivity due to anomalous ocean temperatures, such as during severe El Nino years like 1982-83, and other extreme warm water events, such as in 2014-15 when many marine species suffered. At these times when their prey - small fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and polychaete worms, are scarce, complete nesting failure occurs. Their nearshore habits present additional human-caused hazards such as oil pollution impacts and disturbance.

Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary uses seabirds as sentinel indicators of the health of our coastal ecosystem, through long-term monitoring of live and dead seabirds with its long term Beach Watch project, one of the first citizen-science monitoring projects within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Partners in the Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies (ACCESS) cruises they obtain additional seabird data to measure healthy conditions when normal cold-water upwelling boosts prey availability, and can determine severity, extent and duration of mortality events.They correlate coastal wildlife and human activities, linking wildlife health to pollution, climate change, prey availability, or other environmental factors.

                            LEARN MORE: Each spring Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary offers special seabird tours to Alcatraz; see https://farallones.noaa.gov/visit/exploration-program.html 

For range maps, and more information, see https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pigeon_Guillemot/

Photo Credits:

Emerging from its burrow, the PIGU's sharp-clawed feet cling to precarious footholds. Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4565607(CC by 2.0)]

PIGUs are dead ringers for the unrelated, land-lubbing rock pigeons. Photo: Alan Schmierer/ PubDom

LIFTOFF! During food-rich years, PIGUs with full bellies may struggle to achieve liftoff. Photo: BLM.gov

Immatures and non-breeding season adults have lighter plumage, but the red feet remain their year-round. Photo: Alan Schmeirer-PublicDomain

PIGUs spend more time at the surface than many seabirds. Photo: NPS