NESTING SEABIRDS OF THE GULF OF ALASKA 



55 



Hinchinbrook Entrance, Prince William 

 Sound (Isleib and Kessel 1973). Two years 

 later I positively identified two individuals in 

 breeding plumage among a mixed group of 

 cormorants in the Chiswell Islands west of 

 Seward. Are these recent range extensions? 

 Possibly, but I propose an alternative ex- 

 planation. 



Palmer (1962) showed the distribution of 

 this cormorant as breeding north to Puget 

 Sound and as a straggler north to Forrester 

 Island, Alaska. This viewpoint is shared by 

 the American Ornithologists' Union (1957), 

 which regards the bird as casual as far north 

 as Forrester Island, where this species was 

 collected by Willet (1918). 



Let us look at the other record, the one that 

 is not supported by specimens. Bent (1964) 

 thought of Brandt's cormorant as a breeding 

 resident of Forrester Island. Gabrielson and 

 Lincoln (1959) admonished bird observers to 

 be on the lookout for this particular cor- 

 morant in the vicinity of Ketchikan and 

 Prince of Wales Island. Brandt's cormorant 

 also appears on the bird list for the Kodiak 

 National Wildlife Refuge as an accidental 

 visitor. 



Early observers like Bent were explorers. 

 They carefully examined and made notes on 

 all the birds they saw because there was al- 

 ways a chance of a new discovery. It is also 

 very probable that Bent paid particular atten- 

 tion to the cormorants when he was at a place 

 like Forrester Island. He would have un- 

 doubtedly been very interested in trying to 

 confirm the presence of the now extinct 

 Palla's cormorant (P. perspiculatus), as he 

 must have been aware of Schlegel's (1862-64) 

 list of the birds in the Dresden Museum since 

 Willet (1914) had recently referred to it. The 

 staffs for the Kodiak and Aleutian Islands 

 National Wildlife refuges have included some 

 very careful observers, such as Frank Beals. 

 These men would have noticed the difference 

 if a new bird such as Brandt's cormorant was 

 seen, verified the sighting visually, and then 

 noted it in their field diaries. They would not 

 have bothered to develop the type of proof 

 needed for an undisputable record, but the 

 bird would have appeared in the refuge bird 

 list (as it does). 



The outside coasts of the Alexander Archi- 

 pelago, Kenai Peninsula, and the Islands of 



the Kodiak Archipelago impose some logis- 

 tical requirements which discourage all but 

 the most determined birders. Not many have 

 been able to reach more than very limited seg- 

 ments of the entire coast. Given the vast dis- 

 tances involved, few of the FWS vessels pass- 

 ing through the area have had the time to 

 thoroughly examine any cormorant colonies 

 or roosts bird by bird. Even for those who 

 pause, the ever present swells and the con- 

 stant chop of the summer westerlies make 

 positive identification difficult. 



It is possible that Brandt's cormorant has 

 been in the area in small numbers for a long 

 time, either regularly or intermittently. It 

 could have escaped observation because of the 

 conditions described above. This species may 

 be there as a relict, as a pioneer, or only be- 

 cause surplus birds are being pushed into 

 marginal habitat by population pressures on 

 their main range to the south. 



Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus) 



The pelagic cormorant is the most abun- 

 dant of the four cormorants residing in the 

 Gulf of Alaska. It is found throughout coastal 

 Alaska south of the Bering Strait and even in 

 some colonies in the southern Chukchi Sea. 



Cormorants have a certain invisibility 

 which is brought about by their universal 

 presence. This blindness appears to have af- 

 fected everyone, even the earliest observers. 



The earliest accounts provide a composite 

 picture of the distribution and abundance of 

 the pelagic cormorant which is very similar to 

 that encountered today. In southeastern 

 Alaska, beginning at the eastern edge of the 

 area under discussion, the pelagic cormorant 

 was pictured as the sole resident cormorant. 

 However, we know from Willet's collection of 

 a Brandt's cormorant at Forrester Island that 

 this might not be quite true. From Yakutat 

 Bay westward into the Aleutians this species 

 coexisted with the double-crested cormorant. 

 In the Western Aleutians there is some dis- 

 agreement, but in general it appears to have 

 been accepted that the red-faced cormorant 

 occurred there along with pelagic and pos- 

 sibly double-crested cormorants. In the 

 Bering Sea this species coexisted with the red- 

 faced cormorant. 



A number of recent authors (Gabrielson 



