Rhinoceros Auklet

A few days after I spotted the redneck Grebe I caught a glimpse of this silhouette off the dock and didn’t know what it was.

silhouette of Auklet

It’s not unusual for me to temporarily forget the name of a bird, but I seldom fail to recognize the shape as familiar. It turns out, though, I have seen one of these before; last year I posted a distant shot of a Rhinoceros Auklet but that’s the only time I’ve ever seen one, and it wasn’t nearly as close to shore as this one was.

Even at a distance the wings on this bird are distinctive,

Auklet with wings spread

not something I was apt to forget quickly.

Needless to say, I abandoned my “walk” to see if the bird would come back once I disappeared from sight. I ended up waiting nearly fifteen minutes for it to come closer, but it did

.

Rhinoceros Auklet

Although the bird strikes me more as “unique” then beautiful,

Rhinoceros Auklet

it made my day sighting it.