X is for Xantu’s Murrelet
This image from Wiki shows the size of a Xantu’s murrelet (recently renamed Scripp’s murrelet) when it leaves the nest and plunges into the ocean at fewer than 48 hours old, having not been fed, and without being able to fly. It is about 5 inches long:
Uniquely, from this moment forward this little chick spends it’s entire time at sea, with its parents in attendance for a few months, until it is an adult and returns to the cliffs where it hatched to breed itself.
Luckily it is hatched fully fluffy-feathered and half the size of the parents – the huge eggs the mother murrelet lays (in the cliff rock crevices on islands in the Channel Islands of California, and on Santa Barbara Island, and also several islands off Baja California) have one of the largest egg to bird ratios in the world.
I haven’t been able to find any information as to how the parents keep the chicks together on the open sea, but when the parent birds leave the nest, the babies follow them. The parents fly out to the sea, leaving the chicks to fall and scramble down the cliffs into the water. At this point the parents call to them and the babies swim out to join them – murrelets have a piercing whistle, probably to be heard through the surf, and I surmise that this call would help reunite them if they become separated.
They feed by diving underwater to get larval fish and crustaceans, and rely heavily on shoals of anchovy. They are usually seen feeding in pairs, and if one bird is on the nest then unrelated birds will team up.
While they are briefly in the nest, and as eggs, the chicks are vulnerable to feral cats, house mice, deer mice, and black rats.
Out at sea they become prey to marine animals, oil spills, getting entangled in fishing nets, and pollution.
Xantu’s or Scripp’s murrelet is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Here is a great photo of a pair in the water, by Tony Morris:
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Here is my poem:
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Murrelets
.
Murrelet’s chicks
jump into the surf
just two days after
their egg-hatched birth,
.
follow their parents’
loud cries to be free,
riding the swell
on the rising, green sea.
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How do their parents
guide them and guard,
when their world becomes
just water and dark?
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What do they do
in wind rush and storm,
tossed and plunged
when waves grow strong?
.
But the ocean is where
they make their home,
wind in feather, air in bone,
part ocean, part foam.
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© Liz Brownlee
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If you would like to blog hop to another A-Z Challenge, please click on the logo in the right-hand column!
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Information from:
Channel Islands (USA!) National Park Service.
Prose and Poem © Liz Brownlee, all rights reserved not to be used in any manner whatsoever without the permission of the author.
- Posted in: A-Z Blog Challenge 2016 ♦ Animal Magic - the book ♦ Animals ♦ Poems ♦ Sustainability
- Tagged: A-Z Challenge 2016, animal, bird, murrelet, nature, poem, poetry, seabird, sustainability, wildlife
lizbrownlee - poet 
Such a cute board. Thank you for introducing me to it. Loved your nature poem.
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Thank you, Mary!
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This bird I have never about so it was so interesting to read about it here. I was surprised that mice feed on these little chicks. I love your poem because it shows how little we know of them and like they are from a fairy tale.
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Yes – they really are thrown to the winds, aren’t they!
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Wow, what a cute little bird! I love birds. Sounds like these Xantu’s Murrelets have a rough start to life, falling down the cliffs and all. Poor things. And then they have to fight so hard for life: they really have much going against them, don’t they?
They’re precious little beings. Thanks for educating me today (and all the other days. I’ve really been enjoying your A-Z series).
Michele at Angels Bark
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Thank you, Michele, that’s really kind. I think their story is amazing.
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PS: Loved your poem too!! You have a real talent for poetry…
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Ah, well, I am a professional poet… in books and all, so I certainly hope they would be of a standard!
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that oh-so adorable murrelet deserves you oh-so cute poem, Liz. 😉
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Thank you, Rosemarie! 🙂
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my pleasure, Liz! See you around. 😀
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How fascinating, Liz. I haven’t heard of these birds – what an incredible introduction for those chicks – you wouldn’t think they’d have a hope in hell of surviving. Your poem is beautiful too.
Susan A Eames from
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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Thank you! I hadn’t either, which is surprising considering they live off of North America and are unique. Not many photos of them, either. They are quite endangered really by changes in ocean currents not bringing them food, I really think they will probably become extinct.
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Thinking about those birds laying such large eggs makes one cringe!
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Lol, presumably they have the equipment!
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Wow… I did not even know of this bird. Lovely site you have here.
My Recent Entries for the #AtoZChallenge –
TV Shows: The X-Files
TV Shows: The Wonder Years
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Hello, Roshan, thank you!
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Part ocean, part foam!! Great poem & post!! 😉
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Thank you! 🙂
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What a harsh start to life – but I guess they don’t see it that way! So cute! I’d never heard of them before.
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No, they are wonderful!
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Talk about leaving the nest…
Melanie Schulz from
Melanie Schulz.com
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Yep, it’s a real plunge into the unknown!
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Love your poetry! What a cute little bird, too. Hope you’re enjoying the A to Z Challenge. It’s almost over … http://www.dianeweidenbenner.com
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Thank you! Yes – I shall miss it!
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Adorable! I love all this auk family – it’s related to the puffin, of course. ❤
Jemima Pett
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Yep, he certainly is. love puffins, too. I always remember Enid Blyton when talking about Auks – in one of her books the bird mad boy, Philip? I think his name was, was determined to find an extinct one on islands they were visiting!
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