[Tweeters] Pigeon Guillemot in Breeding Plumage in Early February?

[Gary Bletsch]

 Dear Tom and Tweeters,
I've moved out of the area, so I cannot comment about what the Pigeon Guillemots look like right now. However, I just checked my Salish Sea records of Pigeon Guillemots for the period of 21 January through 15 February. I see notations about plumage dating back to 2006; earlier than that, I had not noted anything about plumages.
Out of 53 records of PIGU from third week of January through mid-February, I had made notes about plumage 21 times. Out of those 21 field notes, 18 mentioned birds in breeding plumage, or  moulting into it.
23 Jan 2009, one observed, and it was in breeding plumage;
28 Jan 2017, "a few of the 8" observed were nearly finished moulting into breeding plumage":
26 Jan 2019, "some of the 6" moulting into breeding plumage;
29 Jan 2021, "3 or 4 of the six" nearly finished moulting into breeding plumage";
21 Jan 2022, "3 of the 3 observed" were in breeding plumage;
5th Feb 2006, "some" of the 10 birds observed were in breeding plumage;
15th Feb 2009, one observed, and it was in breeding plumage;
7th Feb 2010, "most of the 8" in breeding plumage;
13th Feb 2010, "some of the 8" in breeding plumage;
5 Feb 2011, "all 5" moulting into breeding plumage;
5 Feb 2011 [separate observation in a different place], "most of the 10" in breeding plumage;
13 Feb 2011, one observed, and it was in breeding plumage;
13 Feb 2011 [separate observation in a different place], "3 of 5" in breeding plumage;
12 Feb 2016, 20 observed, all either in breeding plumage or mostly done moulting into it;
9  Feb 2019, "5 of 6" in breeding plumage;
1 Feb 2022, "2 of 4" in breeding plumage;
1 Feb 2022 [separate observation], one bird observed, and it was moulting into breeding plumage;
8 Feb 2022, "10 of 11" in breeding plumage.
Also of note was that, out of the three notes that mentioned winter, rather than breeding plumage, two involved single birds; those were on 3 Feb 2022 and 14 Feb 2022. On 25 Jan 2009, I saw 6 Pigeon Guillemots, and all six were in winter plumage.

This is a small set of data, but the observations suggest that Pigeon Guillemots in the Salish Sea start moulting into breeding plumage in late January, and that it is reasonable to expect many, if not most, would be finished or nearly finished moulting by mid-February.
I also did a quick check of Pigeon Guillemots later in February, and most of the birds were done moulting by late February.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch





    On Saturday, February 4, 2023 at 10:20:08 PM EST, Tom Benedict <benedict.t at comcast.net> wrote:  
 
 Today, Feb 4th, 2023, at Brown’s Point Lighthouse I spotted, about 300 meters offshore, two black seabirds with white wing patches. They had the shape, bill and general disposition of a Pigeon Guillemot, so that’s what I called them.  I’m quite sure these were not White-Winged Scoters. The head and bill were not the right shape, and there were no other scoters around.

However, now that I’m home and reviewing my observations, I’m wondering if it’s reasonable to have a Pigeon Guillemot in what looked to me like breeding plumage in early February? The were definitely not the “variable” or “smudgy” plumage of a winter PIGU.

Anyone else seeing Pigeon Guillemots these days? Are they "black and white" or “smudgy”?

Tom Benedict
Seahurst, WA
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