WHAT: CoastWatch volunteers and other people who monitor beaches on the Oregon Coast have noticed an unusual number of dead rhinoceros auklets. These small seabirds typically live way offshore, diving to catch small fish for food. They tend to breed in offshore island colonies by digging burrows in the ground for nests. Coastal Obervation and Seabird Survey Team reports have estimated as many as 20 to 30 auklets washed up per mile on Oregon beaches over the past two weeks.

OTHER SPECIES: Beach hikers from Astoria to Brookings also reported finding dead Cassins auklets, an ancient murrelet, common murres, northern fulmars, fork-tailed storm petrels, horned and tufted puffins, western grebes, short-tailed shearwaters and a western gull. They were not at unusual numbers.

WHY: Scientists don't know.

LONGTERM EFFECT: Possibly no harmful effect. Rhinoceros auklets are not threatened. There are hundreds of thousands of them ranging offshore from Central California to Alaska.

On the Web

The following are Web sites with information about seabird issues, wildlife refuges and marine biology.

Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team

http://www.coasst.org

CoastWatch

http://oregonshores.org/ourprograms/coastalwatch

Oregon Institute of Marine Biology

http://www.uoregon.edu/~oimb

Oregon Coast Aquarium

http://www.aquarium.org

Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge

http://www.fws.gov/oregoncoast/oregonislands/index.htm

The Bird Guide has information about land and seabirds. It also has a handy chart that shows what seabirds are off the Oregon coast and when.

http://www.thebirdguide.com