[EBB Sightings] Dying Murre in Richmond

Hi, all.
  I spent a little time at the northern end of East
Bay RP this afternoon, spotting whimbrels, willets,
unidentified small peeps, avocets, brown pelicans,
Forster's terns, a greater(?) scaup, phoebes, some
unidentified sparrows and some mallards.
  What will stick with me was the common murre. After
heading back up the beach toward the paved trail and
houses (west?), I looked back at the shorebirds and
noticed something flopping around on the
beach/mudflat, which I swear hadn't been there when I
had just passed. It turned out to be a murre in
serious trouble. 
  It twitched and flopped and then was still. I
approached thinking it had died, but it eventually
opened its eyes and after a minute it started flailing
about with its wings. This happened a couple of times.
The bird seemed to be trying to get across the mud to
the water, but pretty much skittered around in
circles. Its legs were out straight and sort of stiff
seeming, but they kicked and twitched, continuing to
twitch for a moment after other movement stopped. When
the bird stopped moving, it had its head arched way
back--like those of a few dead gulls I've seen on
beaches. 
  I debated quite a while over what to do, but came to
the conclusion that the bird probably couldn't be
saved. As I was about to leave, a crow or two flew up
the beach and then back. Withing a minute or two as I
walked away, a murder of crows (that is the right,
ironic, term, isn't it?) had shown up--maybe 10 or so.
They gathered near the murre, but did not, as I'd
thought they might, start pecking at it. They just
stood watching--with the poor murre looking back. (I
was running late, so couldn't stay to see if they
moved in, though I'm not sure I really would have
wanted to watch any longer.)  
  I'm a bit haunted by the scene, wondering if the
bird could have been saved if I could have gotten it
to the bird rescue folks or the Lindsay Museum or if I
was wise in letting nature take its course. I do
wonder, however, if it was just nature or if it had
injested some chemical or some piece of trash that had
debilitated it.
Alan Howe,
North Oakland


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