58 | Chapter 4
Labrador, possibly enjoying the same food as their fellow Puffins breed-
ing rather later in North America. Remarkably, having made the month-
long westward journey across the Atlantic, the Irish Puffins lingered
only 2– 6 weeks before commencing the leisurely return eastwards which,
as with the Skomer birds, often took them initially northwards into the
Denmark Strait and Icelandic waters. The reason why this pattern should
be shared by the Puffins of Wales and Ireland remains unknown.
Another auk has been discovered to undertake a trans- oceanic east-
west migration after breeding – but this time across the Pacific. Ancient
Murrelets breeding at the major colonies of Haida Gwaii (formerly
known as the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Charlottes) were given
geolocators by a team led by Tony Gaston. Instead of heading south
after breeding from British Columbia to coasts off the western United
States, the Murrelets went west, so far west that, by January, they were
in seas between Korea and Japan. The round trip, 8,000 km in each di-
rection, represents the longest migration of any auk. No other North
Pacific species undertakes a similar journey, nor, Gaston writes, “is there
any evidence that the wintering area presents unusually rich feeding op-
portunities”. That, of course, is the scientific way of saying he has no idea
why the birds undertake this epic migration.
Like the Puffin and the Ancient Murrelet, the Common Diving Petrel
is not an obvious long- distance traveller. With stubby wings for both
flight and underwater propulsion and a chunky body, its shape when
airborne resembles that of a flying pig. No wonder Matt Rayner of the
Auckland Museum entitled a diving petrel poster presented at confer-
ences ‘Pigs can fly! – unpredicted migration of Common Diving Petrels
from New Zealand colonies.’ The petrels in question were followed
from two colonies, respectively east and west of New Zealand’s North
Island. During breeding, the parent birds unsurprisingly remained within
300 km of the colony. Once free of responsibility for the chick, they
made journeys lasting, on average, eight days and finished 3,000– 5,000 km
to the south- east in highly productive waters along the Antarctic Polar
Front. Thus the reason the petrels chose this region to pass the non-
breeding period was far clearer than it was for the Ancient Murrelets.
Far more graceful than the auks and diving petrels is Ross’s Gull, whose
breast is suffused with pink in the breeding season. This is an almost