Rhinocerous Auklet with trio of Pacific Sand Lance

auklet with fish, originally uploaded by orcagirl.

This photo is not a sharp as the Fool Island Pigeon Guillemots, but the field characters of Pacific Sand Lance body and tail are distinctive enough for a positive ID. A rhino's exposed culmen is pretty close to that of pigeon guillemot (33 mm) which makes these three sand lance about the same size class (15-18 cm). I see one fish on the left side of bill (silver white belly forward) and two on the right side of the bill with their bellies touching. These sand lance would be a bit wiggly as the rhino flew by and you can get a little sense of that motion given that none of the fish are in the same position.