Explorations of an Ecologist: Thick-billed Murre chase

Just before noon on Friday, Burke Korol made an exciting discovery as he was birding Muskrat Lake near Cobden, Ontario (about an hour northwest of Ottawa). The bird he encountered was an alcid, which he subsequently identified as a Thick-billed Murre. Thick-billed Murre breeds in large colonies on rocky cliffs in coastal parts of the Arctic, northern Europe, the Maritimes, Alaska, etc. It is truly a rare bird in Ontario, one that had only 3 records since the 1950s prior to the Cobden bird. Thick-billed Murre would occasionally arrive in Ontario in big numbers every so often, and usually separated by decades. One hypothesis is that these birds were moving west from the Gulf of the St Lawrence because of a change in their distribution or abundance of winter food, though frequently these flights were associated with strong east winds as well. During one of these murre "wrecks", 140 were counted by George North and Bill Gunn on November 26, 1950, an event that Bob Curry summarized in his excellent Birds of Hamilton. The last Thick-billed Murre flight into Ontario was in 1953 - who knows if/when the next one will occur! Since 1953, there have only been three records of Thick-billed Murre in Ontario, each involving single birds.

One of those records pertains to a bird that was discovered in Kingston by Janis Grant on December 3, 2013. That individual stuck around for two days and allowing a large number of birders to add it to their lists. Unfortunately I was working at the time and unable to get away to chase the bird. When word came in that Burke had discovered this bird near Cobden, I quickly made plans to drive up and look for it the very next day - I would not let another one slip by me.

Laura and I had plans on Saturday evening to attend my work holiday party, meaning that I needed to be back by 5:00 PM at the latest. My plan was to leave Niagara Falls at 2:00 AM on Saturday, arrive in Cobden shortly after sunrise, hopefully see the bird, and then race back to southwestern Ontario. Fortunately the plan worked, and the bird co-operated.

Thick-billed Murre - Muskrat Lake, Renfrew County

Thick-billed Murre (foreground) and Common Loon (background) - Muskrat Lake, Renfrew County

The best viewing of the bird was from the end of Summerfield Drive at the south end of the lake, and along with a contingent of Ottawa-area birders I watched the murre as it alternated between resting and diving. Fortunately the bird was well seen from the moment that I arrived at Muskrat Lake, allowing me to spend several hours observing and photographing the individual before I had to depart. Lev Frid and Amanda Guercio soon showed up - it was great to catch up with them - and Jeremy Bensette/Henrique Pacheco also arrived just as I was about to head home. It was a new Ontario bird for them as well.

Thick-billed Murre - Muskrat Lake, Renfrew County

The bird appeared to be in pretty good shape - it was active and alert, frequently diving to presumably catch fish, followed by periods of preening and resting. It is hard to know if it was successful in its fishing and if it will be able to survive for very long here in Ontario, away from the saltwater that it is used to. It is rare for a vagrant Thick-billed Murre in the interior of the continent to last more than 2-3 days. Interestingly it did nothing but preen for the last half hour that I viewed the bird - perhaps this is an indication of its worsening condition? I can only speculate.

Thick-billed Murre - Muskrat Lake, Renfrew County

The Thick-billed Murre can be aged as an immature bird, born earlier this year, by a number of features. These include its relatively small bill and duskier face and throat. Unfortunately the bird was just too distant when I was photographing it, but others managed better photos, such as the ones attached to this checklist.

Thick-billed Murre - Muskrat Lake, Renfrew County

Eventually I had to pull myself away from the murre to embark on the long, 5 or 6 hour drive back. But the murre would not be the only good bird I saw on the day - an Ontbirds post came through about a Plegadis ibis species (either Glossy or White-faced), in a small marsh on the east side of Port Hope. Fortunately my very next exit on the 401 was the Port Hope exit! 10 minutes later I was looking at the ibis, as it tried to blend in with the local Mallard flock.

one of these things is not like the other....

The bird was quite approachable, allowing me to fire off a number of photos from close range. The light, however was somewhat lacking and it was all I could do to take the somewhat OK photos shown in this post. Gloomy weather such as this can be pretty difficult to shoot in, especially given my camera setup, as I really have to push the ISO to come up with a fast enough shutter speed.