This is going to be a pretty photo sparse Dawn Chorus. I don't have any Razorbill photos. I'll steal a couple of public domain ones to use and post some videos from youtube.
First - what's a Razorbill? Razorbill's are auks, members of same family (Alcidae) of birds as Puffins, Murres, and Guillemots. They are often referred to as the penguins of the north. Many auks do resemble penguins; they are stout-bodied birds with black and white bodies that live in cold oceans and 'fly' underwater to pursue their fishy prey. Unlike penguins, auks can fly in the air as well. Like some penguin species, some auks have elaborate ornamentation on their heads (e.g. puffins).
Most auks occur in the northern Pacific ocean with the Aleutian islands being world alcid headquarters. The razorbill is bit unusual among the auks in that it is one of only two living auk species that is completely restricted to the Atlantic Ocean. The other is the Atlantic Puffin. (side note: two other species occur in the Atlantic and not the Pacific, the Dovekie and the Black Guillemot, but they are also widespread in the Arctic Ocean). Razorbills are also the closest living relative of the extinct Great Auk, a flightless species, and by far the largest living auk, before its extinction in the middle of the 19th century.
Razorbills are not as ornamented as Puffins but in my opinion are among the most elegant and beautiful of all birds. For years they were at the top of the list of North American birds I most wanted to see along with Red-throated Loons.
My dream came true for both species three years ago, but not in North America. Instead I saw both species, in breeding plumage in Scotland. Unfortunately I didn't see either of them at close enough range for photographs with the equipment available to me at the time.
Razorbill Biology
Before proceeding to the main story here's a bit more background on Razorbills. Their name comes from the unusual shape of their bill which resembles an old-fashioned razor. Razorbill populations have been slowly increasing globally over the last century as the practice of harvesting them for food stopped. Detailed and up to date population data were hard to find on the web but it seems like the global population is between 1 and 2 million birds. Over half of the breeding population is in Iceland with other substantial breeding populations in Canada, Great Britain, and Norway. Other northern European nations south to France have small breeding populations. The birds nest on coastal cliffs where their nests are safe from predators.
The U.S. breeding population consists only of a small number of birds breeding in Maine. In contrast they are among the more common auks seen in winter along the eastern seaboard south to Virginia/North Carolina. Prior to this past winter there were only 12 records of razorbills from Florida and all but one of those were from the Atlantic coast. Which leads us to our story...
Since moving to Florida I have hoped each winter to see a Red-throated Loon which is an uncommon but regular visitor to the northern Gulf of Mexico. Never did I expect to see a Razorbill in Florida. But this winter that just ended I did exactly that.
Razorbills Invade Florida
This link is to a particularly good video with no embedding allowed.
In early December 2012 reports of Razorbill sightings in Florida began to appear. Most of the original sightings were along the Atlantic coast and in the far south of the Gulf Coast. Large numbers of birds, dozens at a time were observed.
Within a few days Razorbills were spotted at St Marks National Wildlife Refuge, just to the south of Tallahassee. St Marks is considerably to the north and west of previous sightings. This gap is not surprising as the intervening coast is marshy and has very little road access. Soon birds were spotted even further west. Speculation was that the more westerly gulf coast states would soon be adding a new bird to their list of those seen in the state.
My Razorbill Experiences
I headed down to St Marks in late December hoping to be able to find one. I need not have worried as I simply had to look for the mass of spotting scopes. We were able to see several birds although the wind made observation difficult. They aren't quite as attractive in their winter plumage but they still have a charming penguiny appearance. I return several times in the next 2-3 weeks and saw razorbills each time.
In February we were fortunate to go on an 'eco-cruise' of the area. We were unable to find razorbills then and I haven't seen any since.
Documentation on the Web
I did a bit of research on the web and here is what I found.
There were numerous articles about the Razorbills from mid Decemeber to early January giving locations and anecdotes about observations. Also speculation about reasons for the move south. After the first week in January articles about the invasion stopped.
Three hypotheses were proposed for the movement south.
1) Hurricane Sandy
2) Warming of their normal winter feeding grounds
3) A highly successful breeding season and an unusually large number of juveniles.
I haven't heard anything about any data from winter observations supporting any of these claims over others to date.
Higher than normal mortality was reported among Razorbills this winter over their entire range. The SEANET report above states that high mortality started in Florida and spread further north. A total of 30 dead birds were reported, compared to 3-5 in a normal year. Other reports just mention dead birds but there isn't any numerical data. Other visual reports indicate birds foraging normally. A number of birds also received distressed birds.
The birds I saw were diving regularly and appeared active. Normally in the winter they would be in deep water off the Atlantic coast. I saw them in water that was no more than ten feet deep and often considerably shallower.
Most of the videos I found online are from clear, sheltered water in southwestern Florida. The environment in which I saw them was in more turbid water (near a river mouth).
Ebird Records
Looking at ebird records I found a large number of observations on the North Carolina coast (and north) and then a lower density of observations in coastal Georgia and South Carolina before increasing again when you got to Florida. This may reflect number of observers. Florida observation density appears to be highest near larger cities along the coast indicating that perhaps the number of observers has an effect.
In the Florida panhandle, the region of Apalachee Bay between the St Marks Lighthouse and St George Island had the highest density of observations. Within the bay this corresponds to areas of the coast easily accessible to birders. However further west in the panhandle the frequency of observations drops off.
Outside of Florida there were records in Alabama and Louisiana but none in Mississippi or Texas. Also no records show up for the Bahamas or Cuba despite their proximity to areas where many were seen in south Florida. Most records in far southern Florida are for the Miami area with a few sightings in the Keys and the Dry Tortugas.
The great majority of the observations are from December and January. Progressively smaller numbers of observations were made in February and March and the last Razorbill observation for Florida was April 8 in Miami.
Did many or most of the Florida birds die? It appear at least some of them spent the entire winter here. Did some or many of them leave part way through the winter? It will be interesting to see if there is any effect on the size of the breeding population this year.
The razorbill story is important for a couple of reasons. It points out the unexpected changes we may see over time as the climate changes. It also points out the difficulty of documenting this particular type of phenomenon. Seabirds are generally censused at their colonies. Spread out over the huge amounts of ocean it is going to be very difficult to get good data on these birds.