auklet

Rhinoceros Auklets preyed predominantly on northern anchovies (Engraulis mordax) to rear their chicks in 1993-1995 and 1999.

Differentiate between crested and whiskered auklets, murres and murrelets, Laysan and black-footed albatrosses, horned and tufted puffins, many others.

Crevice-nesting species (puffins, guillemots, auklets) were more difficult to count.

Plumage variability functions for status signalling in least auklets. Animal Behaviour 39:967-975.

Rhinoceros auklets and pigeon guillemots quietly bathe and fluff their feathers in a walk-in aviary; seals, sea otters, and sea lions splash and bark in generous and naturalistic pools.

These northward range shifts, coupled with a dramatic increase in dead and starving Cassin's Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus; Welch 2015a,b), suggest that the present widespread physical oceanographic anomaly has had correspondingly widespread impacts on biological communities (Bond and others 2015).

A small flock of Caspian terns joins five other species of shorebirds and seabirds - black oystercatchers, common murres, pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets and tufted puffins.

Observers on salmon boats in 1994 saw only one murrelet entangled but recorded 3,500 other birds snared, mostly common murres and rhinoceros auklets.

So, what are managers to do when ecological relationships become strained among a few seabird species, namely western gulls, ashy storm-petrels, and Cassin's auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus)?

Foraging aggregations above stratified water have also been reported in other arctic seabirds preying on copepods, such as dovekies (Mehlum, 1990) and least auklets (Aethia pusilla) (Hunt and Harrison, 1990; Hunt et al., 1990).

This is bird heaven: bring binoculars for a close look at horned and tufted puffins, speckled murrelets, and rhinocerous auklets. Humpback and killer whales are often sighted, as are sea otters.

At Triangle Island, low or no apparent impacts on Pelagic Cormorants from breeding eagles and Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) did not reflect any major changes in eagle or falcon abundance over time, but likely did reflect the great abundance of other preferred eagle and falcon prey, especially hundreds of thousands of Cassin's Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus; Beebe 1960; Rodway and others 2011).