Description
Marbled Murrelets – 9″ x 12″ – Original Lithograph – 75 Edition
In the summertime, for obscure camouflage reasons, marbled murrelets are a kind of brindled brown color. In the winter, however, these robin-sized birds display a more elegant black and white plumage. Bateman says he not only finds their feather pattern pleasing, but he really enjoys their alert and perky expression, and expression one might expect from a little elf of the forest.
In the autumn of 1991, he was fortunate enough to observe a gathering of these birds between some islands near his home. Murrelets almost always occur in pairs. These two stayed close together even as he approached, showing their erect little bottoms as they swam away. At the last minute, instead of flying, they kicked up their tiny webbed feet and, with a quick flip, did an escape dive.
The marbled murrelet is losing its nesting habitat along the Pacific coast as it competes with the forest industry for the remaining ancient old-growth trees.
