SHEARWATERS AND FULMARS: Family Procellariidae [ 85 ] 



Asia. Winters over north Pacific as far south as Lower California on American side. 

 In Oregon: Quite common and regular winter resident off coast from September to 

 February. 



UNDER THE HEADING "Pacific Fulmar" are now included both the Pacific 

 Fulmar and the bird reported in Woodcock's Annotated List of the Birds of 

 Oregon (1901) as Rodgers Fulmar. It was formerly believed that the 

 Pacific Fulmar had both a gray and a light phase and that there was 

 another very similar light fulmar called Rodgers Fulmar, but the two are 

 now generally regarded as one species and are so placed in the last A. 0. U. 

 Check-List. Therefore, both the light and dark fulmars found off the 

 Oregon coast are included herewith. Woodcock (1901) and Bailey (1917) 

 are the only ones except ourselves who have mentioned the Pacific Fulmar 

 as an Oregon bird. Woodcock listed it on the authority of B. J. Brether- 

 ton, and Mrs. Bailey stated she found it dead on the beaches following 

 severe storms. 



It is a common and regular winter resident off the Oregon coast, and 

 we have found it in every coastal county. It arrives in September and 

 remains until well toward the first of March (our earliest date, September 

 19; our latest, February 2.6). Undoubtedly it is present later in the spring, 

 as it is known to occur on the California coast as late as mid-April, but 

 the small amount of work done off the Oregon coast in the spring months 

 because of the usual stormy conditions prevailing at that time has 

 prevented our records from being anything more than fragmentary. 



We have known the Pacific Fulmar largely from dead birds picked up 

 on the beach through the winter, usually a single bird or a few. It is 

 evident that even these masters of the air have their troubles in the wild 

 storms that occasionally lash our coast and are either weather killed or 

 find it impossible to obtain sufficient food. On November zo and zi, 

 19x1, during and following a terrific southwester, Gabrielson found many 

 hundreds of them dead on the Tillamook beaches. On the zoth, during 

 the same storm, numbers of them were dead on the beach between 

 Netarts and Three Arch Rocks. On the zzd, at Barview, which is just 

 at the north entrance of Tillamook Bay, the combination of tide and wind 

 had thrown ashore, just north of the jetty, many thousands of birds, the 

 great bulk of which were Pacific Fulmars, but which included ducks of 

 several species, scoters, loons, grebes, and even ravens. The beach for a 

 mile or more north of the jetty was covered with dead birds, and scattered 

 individuals were visible beyond the point where Gabrielson turned back. 



These beautiful sea birds in their soft gray or gray and snow-white 

 plumage are one of the offshore attractions of the fall and winter months. 

 Like the shearwaters, they are masters of the air, capable of sailing for 

 long distances on set wings and at the same time being able to turn and 

 wheel by dipping the wing on the inside of the circle. They are adept 



