{"id":9313,"date":"2021-08-21T11:12:38","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T18:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=9313"},"modified":"2023-09-16T09:35:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T16:35:32","slug":"2020-09-northern-fulmar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2020-09-northern-fulmar\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 – 9 Northern Fulmar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You won\u2019t see these gull-sized birds in Elliot Bay, or as you pass Port Townsend on your way to the big sail to Mexico, but once you take the turn at Neah Bay, you\u2019ll see plenty. They vary in color from white to gray or brown, like gulls, but their behavior is very different with stiff-wings and quick flaps to keep them airborne. Flying close to the water\u2019s surface, they grab prey on the wing, or make quick dives for a morsel just below the surface. Fish, squid, and jellyfish are normal fair, but recently they flock behind seafood factory ships. Fulmars use island sea cliffs to breed, gathering in large colonies to make primitive nests where the female lays one egg. Young take their time maturing and do not breed until they\u2019re 10 years old, making them extremely vulnerable to changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve all heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the two growing vortexes of plastics floating around the center of the ocean that is currently about 600,000 square miles in size. As all this plastic grinds together out there, it breaks up into ever-smaller pieces, and guess which birds pick up pieces thinking it\u2019s food? Fulmars fly by and grab, and swallow. Some fulmars have been found to have dozens of plastic things in their stomachs, bottle tops, little plastic shards of bigger items, junk someone bought. While the plastic doesn\u2019t digest, it does fill up a limited space in there, making it impossible for the bird to get enough to eat \u2013 or, basically it thinks it\u2019s always full, which, I guess it is. That bottle you carelessly toss overboard, or the plastic bag that gets blown overboard \u2013 ALL will eventually get small enough to be eaten by wildlife. Maybe a little fulmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry Eifert paints and sails the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n\n\n

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You won\u2019t see these gull-sized birds in Elliot Bay, or as you pass Port Townsend on your way to the big sail to Mexico, but once you take the turn at Neah Bay, you\u2019ll see plenty. They vary in color from white to gray or brown, like gulls, but their behavior is very different with … Continue reading 2020 – 9 Northern Fulmar<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11851,"parent":6453,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-9313","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9313"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11853,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9313\/revisions\/11853"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}