Insight into the lives of animals.

Diving into the cool, clear waters the robin-sized MARBLED MURRELET (Brachyramphus marmoratus marmoratus) swims adeptly using her strong wings like fins. She swims faster than the shiny, small fish she now catches in her sharp beak. Crustaceans are also plucked from the underwater landscape. She spent the past 8 months out at sea but now, in late sprin breeding season, flies inland using well-camouflaging plumage of marbled gray and brown. Old-growth coniferous forests from here in central California all the way up to Alaska provide nesting habitat for the murrelet. Having fed all day a few miles offshore, she returns at dusk to the soft, moss-lined nest high in the branches of a quiet redwood. She and her mate will spend the night sharing parental responsibilities for a solitary egg before feeding begins again at dawn. Artwork and text by Rochelle Mason [c] 1999-2003 www.rmasonfinearts.com [phone]