07/28/2026
Two Marbled Murrelets, mid-July, still in full breeding dress.
That mottled brown isn't seabird camouflage. It's nesting camouflage — and where these birds nest is one of the odder facts in the Bay. Some go up into the old spruce on the south side and lay a single egg on a mossy limb, no nest built at all. Others skip trees entirely for a ledge or a scree slope above treeline. In treeless areas in Alaska, the bird nests on the ground or in rocky cavities typically within one-mile of shore, but no more than four-miles from shore. Then they commute back out here to feed.
Photographed by a guest aboard a recent trip.
