Cassin's Auklet
Cassin's Auklets react hysterically to boats, sometimes flying away when they are a kilometre away. I have managed a few grab shots in flight but this is the first shot I have managed of one on the water. I must have caught this one snoozing as it flew off about a second after I took this. They are not much to write home about, being smoky grey year round with a white fleck over the eye and a pale spot on the bill. They breed on islands off America's Pacific coast from central Baja right up to the Aleutians, but only returning to their nesting burrows after dark. I have spent quite a bit of time on the Pacific coast of North America but I have rarely seen Cassin's Auklets anywhere other than Baja, which is where I took this photo. They are classified by IUCN as near-threatened as the population has suffered steep declines. In 2014 between 50,000 and 100,000 washed up dead on the US coast that had apparently died of starvation. They feed on large zooplankton, especially krill.
The name Cassin's Auklet was bestowed on the bird in 1845 by William Gambel to honour his ornithologist friend John Cassin (1813-69) who described 198 species of bird. Gambel also gave it the scientific name Mergulus cassinnii but Pallas had already described this species 34 years earlier, so his name aleuticus (from the Aleutians) took precedent. Its current genus is Ptychoramphus which means "plated bill".
Cassin's Auklet
Cassin's Auklets react hysterically to boats, sometimes flying away when they are a kilometre away. I have managed a few grab shots in flight but this is the first shot I have managed of one on the water. I must have caught this one snoozing as it flew off about a second after I took this. They are not much to write home about, being smoky grey year round with a white fleck over the eye and a pale spot on the bill. They breed on islands off America's Pacific coast from central Baja right up to the Aleutians, but only returning to their nesting burrows after dark. I have spent quite a bit of time on the Pacific coast of North America but I have rarely seen Cassin's Auklets anywhere other than Baja, which is where I took this photo. They are classified by IUCN as near-threatened as the population has suffered steep declines. In 2014 between 50,000 and 100,000 washed up dead on the US coast that had apparently died of starvation. They feed on large zooplankton, especially krill.
The name Cassin's Auklet was bestowed on the bird in 1845 by William Gambel to honour his ornithologist friend John Cassin (1813-69) who described 198 species of bird. Gambel also gave it the scientific name Mergulus cassinnii but Pallas had already described this species 34 years earlier, so his name aleuticus (from the Aleutians) took precedent. Its current genus is Ptychoramphus which means "plated bill".