BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — Winter is usually a sleepy time for this small seaside city nestled on a peninsula about an hour northeast of Portland. With no vacationers, many companies shut down completely for the season.
However guests have flocked right here in current weeks, braving frigid temperatures for an opportunity to glimpse Boothbay’s latest resident: a uncommon fowl of prey that has no earthly enterprise on this a part of the world.
The Steller’s sea eagle, a large raptor native to elements of Asia and Siberia, has been bouncing round Maine’s midcoast since Dec. 30 — its newest cease on an epic journey throughout North America. Whereas the species often turns up in western Alaska, that is the primary time one has been documented within the Decrease 48.
“I might say that that is probably the most thrilling uncommon fowl that’s ever been in america,” Nick Lund, the advocacy and outreach coordinator for Maine Audubon, informed HuffPost.
A number of elements introduced Lund to that conclusion. “Its rarity — there are solely 4,000 of them in your entire world,” he stated. “Its bodily impressiveness. It’s the most important eagle on the planet, it’s big, it’s identifiable. And the truth that it’s so removed from its residence.”
The gorgeous fowl, which creator Thomas Hynes aptly described as a “muppet,” has a big, cartoonish yellow-orange beak and distinctive white plumage alongside its higher wings that resembles a splattered snowball. Steller’s sea eagles are considerably bigger than bald eagles, with a 6- to 8-foot wingspan, and weigh as much as 20 kilos.
For no matter motive, the fowl appears to have taken a liking to Boothbay, frequenting various websites alongside the water. It’s unclear whether or not it’s a male or feminine.
The scene on Sunday felt like a sporting occasion. That morning, the fowl had been noticed close to a seasonal inn at Spruce Level, south of city. The sighting was reported on a 1,700-member GroupMe account created to trace and talk about the wayward fowl. The information traveled quick. By the point HuffPost made it to Spruce Level at 11:30 a.m., the car parking zone and street have been lined with vehicles from Maine, Connecticut and New York. However the fowl, maybe startled by the rising crowd, had been flushed from its perch and headed west, towards Mouse Island.
Dozens of fowl lovers gathered in small teams alongside the two-lane street, binoculars and recognizing scopes aimed throughout the harbor. Somebody thought they’d discovered it however was dissatisfied when it was merely an earthly bald eagle.
Then one lady, who’d been viewing the fowl from a distinct vantage level, described its location for different anxious birders.
“Oh, my God!” one other lady shouted after catching a glimpse. “I need to offer you a giant hug,” she informed the girl who’d helped level it out.
There, on the north finish of the island, the eagle’s white wing bars popped in opposition to a backdrop of evergreen branches. Each occasionally, it flashed its brightly coloured beak.
Louis DeMarco, of Brooklyn, New York, was dropping off a kayak for restore within the city of Bathtub when a pal and fellow birder informed him he wasn’t removed from the well-known fowl. As an alternative of heading residence to New York, DeMarco detoured 45 minutes to Boothbay. The choice didn’t disappoint.
“Holy moly! HOLY MOLY!” DeMarco stated repeatedly after somebody let him use this scope to view the eagle from throughout the harbor.
“These are distant views. I feel what they normally say is, ‘Higher view desired,’” he stated, referencing a saying amongst birders for if you see a fowl however want you’d been nearer. “I didn’t assume I had any probability of it, so I’ll take a ‘higher view desired.’”
This Steller’s sea eagle first shocked the birding world when it turned up alongside the Denali freeway in southeastern Alaska in August 2020. Since then it has continued a gradual journey east, popping up in Texas, jap Canada and now New England. Earlier than arriving in Maine late final month, it spent per week or so mingling with bald eagles alongside the Taunton River in southeastern Massachusetts.
Many have understandably taken to describing the animal as “misplaced,” however specialists say all indications are that it’s wholesome and content material in its travels.
“This eagle is true at residence,” Lund stated. “It’s on a distinct continent, however it’s in a spot that could be very very like its native vary. I select to kind of rejoice it as an explorer, as somebody residing its finest life and going out by itself and making its manner on the planet.”
Birds turning up exterior their regular vary, often called avian vagrancy, is just not unusual. Some do get misplaced or are blown off track in inclement climate, sometimes throughout migration. And raptors, significantly youthful ones, have been recognized to enterprise out looking for new territory.
Lund famous that sightings of uncommon and vagrant birds are likely to spark every little thing from pleasure and pleasure to concern.
Laurie Eire, a lifelong birder and resident of Belfast, Maine, stated she discovered herself in tears enthusiastic about how the eagle won’t survive or make it again residence. Of all of the birds Eire has noticed over time, the Steller’s ranks excessive on her record.
“I might by no means get to Russia,” she stated. “By no means.”
A number of years in the past, a fantastic black hawk, a tropical species native to Central and South America, turned up in Maine and later needed to be euthanized after struggling frostbite on its legs. The birding group mourned the loss.
Not like the black hawk, which wasn’t constructed to outlive Maine winters, the Steller’s sea eagle seems to be thriving right here, Lund stated.
As for the way lengthy it can stick round Boothbay, it’s anybody’s guess.
“Stepping into the spring can be very fascinating, as a result of that’s when these birds search for mates and territories,” Lund stated. He famous it might probably quiet down and even breed with a bald eagle. (An obvious hybrid of the 2 eagle species was seen on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 2004.)
“Everybody’s kind of ready to see what may occur,” Lund stated.