32 | Chapter 2
One hundred years ago, George Willett described the scene on a June
night at an Ancient Murrelet colony on the Alaskan island of Forrester.^5
“The old bird precedes the young to the water, generally keeping from
twenty to one hundred feet ahead of it. A continuous communication is
maintained between the two, the frequent cheeps of the young being
answered by the parent.... The chicks come tumbling down the hill-
sides, falling over rocks and logs and, directed by the adult, generally
make their way to the bottom of the nearest ravine which they follow
to the salt water. Arriving at the water’s edge, in response to the anx-
ious calls of the parent who is already some distance out on the water,
the chick plunges in and swims boldly out through the surf and joins its
parent.”
Encouraged and guided by their parents’ calls, which they recognize,
the chicks swim towards their mother and father who keep moving fur-
ther out throughout the night.^6 Within 18 hours of departure, the family
can be up to 60 km from the nest, as revealed by traditional radio-
tracking. Thereafter it appears the family foursome remains together
for some six weeks. Unfortunately, miniaturisation has not yet reached
the stage where details of that time together, and subsequent family
break- up can be followed.
More, information is available for the larger guillemots and Razor-
bills where the single chick is accompanied by its father for the first two
months of sea- going life. Once the fledging chick has survived the po-
tential hazards of gulls, skuas, foxes, and crashes, it makes an offshore
rendezvous with the waiting father. Together they swim away, often to
nursery areas where the male moults during the period of continuing
association.
Thanks to attached geolocators to record position and pressure sen-
sors to record dives,* Chantelle Burke of Newfoundland’s Memorial Uni-
versity monitored male and female Common Guillemot activity during
- (^) The devices were retrieved the following spring back at the study colonies, Gull and Funk
Islands off Newfoundland. The latter is famous as a nesting site of the lamented extinct Great
Auk which may well have had similar breeding arrangements, the father accompanying the
chick to sea. Unfortunately there are no contemporary written records to confirm this.