50 USGS/BRD/ITR-2000-0012 



local men began a business to harvest murre eggs from 

 rocks off Humbug Mountain, where "The murre, which 

 a few years ago was not known to exist north of Cape 

 Mendocino are now to be found off Humbug by 

 thousands (Port Orford Tribune, 17 May 1 892)." Murre 

 colonies on Island Rock (Colony number 270-049) and 

 Redfish Rocks, west of Humbug Mountain, apparently 

 were the targets of this harvest. Harvest of murre eggs 

 on Island Rock and Blanco Reef (probably Redfish 

 Rocks off Cape Blanco) also occurred by 1901 (Port 

 Orford Tribune, 11 June 1901), and in 1909 it was 

 reported that "170 dozen eggs [2,040 eggs] were 

 collected in one forenoon's work" (Port Orford Tribune, 

 9 June 1909). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth 

 centuries, an average of 700 dozen murre eggs (8,400 

 eggs) were gathered each year at Island Rock and Redfish 

 Rocks (Centennial Edition of the Coos Bay Times, 3 

 May 1947). Thus, thousands of murres evidently bred 

 on the rocks and islands near Port Orford at this time, a 

 number sufficient to support commercial harvesting of 

 eggs for at least a decade. 



At the start of the twentieth century, W. L. Finley 

 (1902; 1905a, 1905b) documented a large colony of 

 breeding murres at Three Arch Rocks (Colony numbers 

 219-054 to 219-057), as well as the slaughter of murres 

 by sport shooters for target practice. Through persistent 

 urging by Finley, Three Arch Rocks was declared a 

 Reservation for the Protection of Native Birds (now 

 known as a National Wildlife Refuge) by Executive 

 Order of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Over 

 the years, tremendous numbers of murres have been 

 reported here, described as "countless thousands" (Ferris 

 1940), or from "hundreds of thousands" to 750,000 

 murres (Gabrielson and Jewett 1940). S. G. Jewett (Tuck 

 1961) considered numbers in the late 1930s and early 

 1940s to have increased since his first visit to the rocks 

 in 1914. From 1930 to 1940, R. Ferris banded many 

 chicks at Three Arch Rocks and Cape Lookout (Colony 

 numbers 219-061 to 219-063; Bayer and Ferris 1987). 

 S. G. Jewett (Tuck 1961) also reported large colonies 

 "on the rocks off Bandon" (Colony numbers 270-015 

 to 270-020), "off Port Orford" (Redfish Rocks), "off the 

 mouth of the Pistol River" (Colony numbers 270-085 

 to 270-087), and "other smaller colonies in between". 

 A. Walker (Tuck 1961) reported fewer than 2,500-3,000 

 on Cape Lookout, large colonies at "Two Arches off 

 Cascade Head, where two of the three rocks are occupied 

 by murres" (Colony numbers 219-069 to 219-073), 

 breeding at "Cape Mears, where some nest on ledges on 

 the cape and others on an offshore rock" (Colony 

 numbers 219-044 to 219-051); and breeding at "another 

 smaller colony on a rock off Falcon Cove" (Colony 

 number 219-030). Museum egg specimens provided 



additional evidence of breeding and numbers of murres 

 present at several colonies in the first half of the twentieth 

 century (Table 2.3). 



Murre numbers increased during the first half of 

 the twentieth century, including colony formations. 

 Murres apparently began breeding on Colony Rock at 

 Yaquina Head in the 1940s or 1950s. Murres were not 

 noted breeding in 1899 (Prill 1901; Bayer 1986a), nor 

 were they recorded during a Portland Audubon Society 

 field trip in May 1940 (Anonymous 1940). However, a 

 Portland Audubon Society field trip on 11 May 1952 

 did report murres from this location, although it was not 

 clear if they were breeding (Oakes 1952). By 1958, 

 breeding was confirmed by egg collectors (Table 2.3). 

 Visual estimates during aerial surveys by the USFWS 

 from 1966 to 1977 were from 1,800 to 4,800 birds. 



The first coastwide survey of murres and other 

 seabirds in Oregon occurred in the 1960s when the 

 Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife (now U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service) was evaluating the acquisition of 

 the larger rocks and islands for inclusion in the National 

 Wildlife Refuge System. On 9-10 July 1964, biologists 

 conducted an aerial survey along the entire coast and 

 visually estimated 108,700 murres, which did not 

 include 300,000 murres previously reported at Three 

 Arch Rocks (D. B. Marshall, unpublished data). D. B. 

 Marshall (unpublished field notes) noted that visual 

 estimates of the murres were probably inaccurate 

 because "The dense colonies of sea birds, particularly 

 murres, pose a census problem which I feel is not 

 satisfactorily resolved." They did photograph various 

 colonies to provide a comparison with visual estimates, 

 but the photos were never counted (D. B. Marshall, 

 personal communication). The current location of these 

 photos is unknown. 



In 1966-67, Browning and English (1967, 1972) 

 surveyed 12 rocks and islands and provided estimates 

 of murres at some colonies, including 225 on North 

 Coquille Point Rock (Colony number 270-015), 450+ 

 on Cat and Kittens (Colony number 270-0 1 9), 1 , 1 80 on 

 Island Rock, 300 on an unnamed rock NW of Island 

 Rock (Colony number 270-048), and 1,650 on an 

 unnamed rock at Whaleshead Creek. In 1964, D. B. 

 Marshall (unpublished data) recorded 1 ,500 murres at 

 Island Rock, but there were major differences at other 

 sites. For example, 12,000 and 18,000 murres were 

 reported on Cat and Kittens and the unnamed rock at 

 Whaleshead Creek, respectively. The disparity between 

 these two surveys may have resulted from the early 

 survey dates in 1967 (22-23 April) and rough visual 

 estimates. 



