Marbled Murrelet

“Rare insights into the trials and joys of scientific discovery.” —Publisher’s Weekly

The story of a nesting pair of murrelets who fly inland from their home in the Pacific Ocean to the Douglas-fir tree area of California where an egg is laid. After the egg is hatched the parents fly back and forth to the ocean bring fish for the young bird to eat. And finally when the fledgling leaves the nest and heads to the ocean.

This report was compiled & edited by the interagency Marbled Murrelet Conservation Assessment Core Team. The 37 chapters cover both original studies & literature reviews of many aspects of the species' biology, ecology, & conservation needs. It includes new information on the forest habitat used for nesting, marine distribution, & demographic analyses; & describes past & potential effects of humans on the species habitats. Future research needs & possible management strategies for both marine & forest habitats are suggested. Charts & tables.

• Written by a critically-acclaimed natural-history author • Shares author’s fun journey to understanding clouds • Written for the curious—but non-science—minded Author Maria Mudd Ruth fell in love with clouds the same way she stumbles into most passions: madly and unexpectedly. A Sideways Look at Clouds is the story of her quite accidental infatuation with and education about the clouds above. When she moved to the soggy Northwest a decade ago, Maria assumed that locals would know everything there was to know about clouds, in the same way they talk about salmon, tides, and the Seahawks. Yet in her first two years of living in Olympia, Washington, she never heard anyone talk about clouds—only the rain. Puzzled by this lack of cloud savvy, she decided to create a 10-question online survey and sent it to everyone she knew. Her sample size of 67 people included men and women, new friends in Olympia, family on the East Coast, outdoorsy and indoorsy types, professional scientists, and liberal arts majors like herself. The results showed that while people knew a little bit about clouds, most were like her—they had a hard time identifying clouds or remembering their names. As adults, they had lost their curiosity and sense of wonder about clouds and were, essentially, not in the habit of looking up. A Sideways Look at Clouds acknowledges the challenges of understanding clouds and so uses a very steep and bumpy learning curve—the author’s—as its plot line. The book is structured around the ten words used in most definitions of a cloud: “a visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the earth.” A captivating story teller, Maria blends science, wonder, and humor to take the scenic route through the clouds and encourages readers to chart their own rambling, idiosyncratic course.

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) ranges from Alaska to California and is listed under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon, and California. Marbled murrelet recovery depends, in large part, on conservation and restoration of breeding habitat on federally managed lands. A major objective of the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) is to conserve and restore nesting habitat that will sustain a viable marbled murrelet population. Under the Plan, monitoring is an essential component and is designed to help managers understand the degree to which the Plan is meeting this objective. This report describes methods used to assess the status and trend of marbled murrelet populations under the Plan.

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), a seabird, nests in forested stands from southeast Alaska south to Santa Cruz, California. Because of this species' close association with old-growth forests, researchers and land managers need a method to assess murrelet distribution and use patterns throughout its range. This guide describes a standardized method for surveying marbled murrelets used by researchers in California and Oregon during 1988 and 1989. Transects can be used to assess activity patterns over large blocks of land, such as States or counties. Stationary counts using an intensive inventory method can be used to survey small acreages, such as individual timber sales. In addition to bird counts, vegetation and physical data should be collected at each census point. The guide includes a form that can be used to design studies and determine activity patterns and potential use.