Uria aalge

 Uria aalge is the scientific name for the common murre. The common murre is a penguin type bird that is found primarily in the oceans of the northern hemisphere. They are circumpolar which means that they are often found around the coasts of North America, Europe and Asia. While they can fly they spend most of their time in the water. They are excellent swimmers and can dive to depths of about 200 feet in search of fish, squid, or other aquatic invertebrates. The only time that they usually come to dry land is during the breeding season. They breed together in large colonies on the sides of cliffs. Their eggs are quite pointed at one end, so much so that when they roll they do so in a circle. This is a great advantage when you lay your eggs on the side of a cliff. This common murre was photographed during the non-breeding season off the California coast near Monterey Bay.  

Black Dog Merganser

I had hoped to blog from the Sax Zim Birding Festival that I attended this weekend but unfortunately I did not have Internet access at the hotel, which I stayed at. I did take a lot of shots of some great winter birds that I will be posting about shortly. I need to get them all down loaded first so while you wait here is a picture that I took at Black Dog Lake back on the 9th.
It was very cold and pretty quiet that Saturday I did find a common merganser female in the icy water.
Last year when we were in California we found a red-breasted merganser in the much warmer waters of the Elkhorn Slough. Red-breasted mergansers typically migrate to costal water, like those in California, during the winter.
We also found a female bufflehead in the harbor at Moss Landing. I have photographed bufflehead in Ca, Two Harbors, MN and the Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico.
When we on our whale watch looking for gray whales, I have already photographed humpbacks and orcas, we came across this common murre.
The common murre is a bird that we do not see in Minnesota. It spends most of its life in the sea and usually leaves the water only to breed on islands or rocky shorelines.