Crested Auklet Vertical

Shoot it vertical and practice!

Here is a Crested Auklet from my recent Saint Paul Island Workshop. If you want to improve your birds in flight skills, try shooting with your camera turned vertically to Portrait mode. As I age, my vision, reflexes and hand-eye coordination are all working hard to slow me down - I stay sharp by spending hours tracking super small, fast and erratic birds in flight and often orient the camera vertically - smile.

Crested Auklet in flight on black

Here’s another Crested Auklet in flight a la Sony 200-600mm lens and Alpha 1 camera. This combo is such a bomb that I am seriously considering leaving my prime 600/4 at home next year. Getting tired of Crested Auklet pics?

Backlit Crested Auklet in flight

This image has been on my bucket lit for a very long time. Crested Auklets are the least abundant seabirds on the cliffs of Saint Paul Island, so finding them flying into the right background can be challenging. All of the other images in this sequence had busy and bright coloured rocks in the background. I was fortunate to have a few sequences as this bird circled multiple times waiting for the right wind to land.

Crested Auklet in flight

There was no shortage of Crested Auklets on Saint Paul Island during my recently concluded workshop there. They share the same habitat as the much more numerous Parakeet Auklet, so you really do need to focus on finding the few Crested Auklets amongst the masses of seabirds flying on windy days. The quick identifier is the dark belly compared to the pale underside of the Parakeet Auklet. Absolutely my favourite bird on Saint Paul Island - smile.

Crested Auklet Portrait

Crested auklets are known for their forehead crests, which are made of black forward-curving feathers. These forehead crests are highly variable and can have between two and twenty-three narrow forward curving feathers. The average auklet has 12 crest feathers, which are of variable length, between 8.1 and 58.5 millimetres. Auklets have auricular plumes and a bright orange bill with curved accessory plates. Like forehead crests, these features vary widely within auklet populations.

Join me on Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea, Alaska for an adventure of your lifetime: Saint Paul Island Workshop adventure details CLICK HERE.

Crested Auklet CURIOUS STARE

A Crested Auklet gives a curious glance during my last Saint Paul Island, Alaska Workshop.

Auklets produce a pleasant social odour during the breeding season, described as smelling like tangerines. This odour originates from tiny wick feathers located in a small patch of skin between their shoulder blades.

Crested Auklet Preening

“As an experienced wildlife & landscape photographer I would highly recommend you attend one of Chris Dodds' workshops - I have attended a number of Chris' workshops and each of them reflect Chris' caring. I just attended the St. Paul, Alaska workshop - typical of Chris' professionalism, and expertise. He only takes you to those unique shooting opportunities when he is convinced that the shoot will provide you the experience you are seeking. In the Saint Paul Island workshop's case he has visited this unique special remote island for over 25 years. The local small population obviously respects Chris and they do all they can to assist the experience. You shoot from a variety of locations, with many types of birds, complimented by wild fox, sea lions etc. Chris has the talent to assist both experienced and novice photographers - he makes sure you get the opportunities you want, and if you need extra help he enjoys jumping in and helping you. If you had to summarize Chris' workshops in a few words - Great well researched locations, tremendous local knowledge, dedicate to your photographic results being all you could possibly want.”

— Wynne Powell British Columbia, Canada

Crested Auklet Calling

The Bering Sea in winter, framed as it is by Alaska and Siberia, is frigid, stormy, and dark. But remarkably, some birds seem right at home there. The Crested Auklet is one such bird. And they have some unique qualities. Crested Auklets bark like Chihuahuas. Also, these seabirds exude an odor of tangerines from a chemical they produce that they thought repels ticks, but may, in fact, be a form of communication (read more HERE). They nest in immense colonies on Bering Sea islands, and remain nearby through winter, in flocks of many thousands. The auklets present a superb natural spectacle - sight, sound, and smell!

Crested Auklet in flight

Here’s a Crested Auklet in-flight image from Saint Paul Island, AK. We spent an incredible day perched at the top of the seabird cliffs on an incredibly windy day. The seabird activity was over-the-top. All of the stars were out and preforming for us: Crested, Parakeet and Least Auklets, Horned and Tufted Puffins, Red-faced Cormorants, Northern Fulmars, Black-legged and Red-legged Kittiwakes. It was a spectacular day!

If you missed them, be sure to see these related posts:

Crested Auklet sends fragrant signals

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

Crested Auklet sends fragrant signals

Here is a Crested Auklet from Saint Paul Island, AK. Saint Paul Island is part of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia.

The tangerine-scented crested auklet is the first bird found to send fragrant signals.

Whenever I have been to seabird colonies over the years, I often smell seabirds before seeing them. Most often, the smell at a seabird colony is quite foul, especially on a hot sunny afternoon after some rain. When I smell what can only be described as someone peeling a tangerine next to me, I know there are Crested Auklets nearby - smile.

Crested auklets sniff necks when they meet. The birds seem to use perfume to make themselves attractive. When birds meet, they press their bills against each other's necks - feathers here have the strongest smell. It's not known what the perfume signifies. It could convey the bird's quality as a mate - well-fed birds might be able to produce more scent.

The perfume is a blend of oils, but how it's made is also a mystery. Oil from the auklets' preening gland is odorless, but bacteria on the feathers might break it down into something smellier. The birds only smell during the breeding season, with males and females becoming equally pungent.

Many birds, including vultures and pigeons, rely on scent to find food and navigate, but the use of chemicals to signal to others was unknown. The auklets open up a new field, says physiologist Bernice Wenzel of the University of California, Los Angeles.

"It's too soon to say whether [these signals] will turn out to be common," says Wenzel. "The important thing is that more research of this sort should be conducted."

Join me for my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop this July to learn more CLICK HERE.

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

2020 marks the sixth consecutive year of seabird die-offs in Alaska. Alaska's northern oceans have been experiencing record-breaking, above-average sea surface temperatures. Seabirds eat zooplankton and cold-water fish that are both reliant on cold water. If the cold-water fishes have relocated because the ocean is too warm, or less zooplankton are reproducing in the warmer water, then the seabirds have a more difficult time finding enough food. Coldwater fish are fattier and provide more calories and nutrients for the birds, so even if they can find warm-water fish to eat, they may still have trouble meeting their calorie needs.

The seabirds affected in 2020 are:

• Crested Auklets

• Horned Puffins

• Common Murrs

• Short-tailed Shearwaters

• Northern Fulmars

• Black-legged Kittiwakes

Most of the dead birds appear to have died of starvation. Murres, for example, have a high metabolic rate and consume 10-30% of their total body weight every day. Changes to their food supply can impact their basic functions such as flying, feather molt and weatherproofing, and thermal regulation. Seabird die-offs also impact the entire population because of the reduction in breeding adults and the low productivity rate (success of eggs becoming chicks and becoming adults). Some species have experienced reproductive failure because the females are not in good enough body condition to produce eggs.

Join me on Saint Paul Island, AK for the trip of a lifetime. Learn more HERE.