Tasli Shaw says she was on a day-long boat trip in the Salish Sea on July 23 when she noticed a bird that looked different from the usual seagulls she had seen during her 13-year career just south of the Trial Islands near Victoria. “[It] I immediately registered as a foreigner on my side of the brain,” said Shaw, who works for the whale-watching company Ocean Ecoventures in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island. “The way it flapped its wings was very different from a gull species. It also had very distinctive black bars on its wings.” Shaw says she immediately “jumped into action” and managed to capture a video of the bird – which turned out to be a Nazca puffin, a seabird native to the eastern Pacific, around Central America. WATCHES | Rare exploding Nazca bird has been spotted near the Trail Islands off the coast of Vancouver Island
Rare bird observed near the Trail Islands off the coast of Vancouver Island
Tasli Shaw was able to capture video of a Nazca eruption on July 23 — only the third confirmed sighting in BC. It is only the third confirmed sighting of the bird in the province, according to BC Rare Bird Alert. “This sighting meant a lot … to have the privilege of finding only the third confirmed Nazca explosive in the province,” Shaw said. “It was the highlight of my birding career.” Shaw said the boat, with many curious passengers, was rocking in rough seas. The bird itself was moving erratically. He said once he explained to the passengers what he was doing – “driving a big circle, trying to keep up with the bird and get good pictures of it” – and how rare the bird was, they were “very surprised”. On a trip that included sightings of a whale and calf and a harbor seal giving birth, spotting Nazca was still the highlight, he said. “I feel very privileged to be out on the water so much and experience all the other amazing seabirds that live here,” he said. “Having the rare bird pass by is icing on the cake.” Boat captain Matt Stolmeier, who took this photo, said many were on alert for the bird after being alerted to Shaw’s sighting. (Matt Stollmeier) Matt Stolmeier, another boat captain who managed to capture high-resolution photos of the bird a day after Shaw’s sighting, said he turned his boat around as soon as he spotted the bird out of the corner of his eye. “Our network of wildlife guides and naturalists were alerted to the Tasli sighting, so many of us were on high alert for this bird,” he said. “It was a very exciting find.”
The migration season continues
Ann Nightingale, a volunteer at the Rocky Point Bird Observatory, said she chartered a boat after word of the Nazca explosives sighting spread, but failed to cross paths with it. “I know there were people who got on the first ship they could from Vancouver, to get on a whale watching boat in Victoria, hoping to try and see it,” he said. “When a new bird appears … people really run to try and see it.” The Nazca booby is native to the eastern Pacific, the Galapagos Islands and near Mexico. The bird has only been seen three times in the province, according to the BC Rare Bird Alert. (Matt Stollmeier) The Nazca Bomber is not listed province conservation list given how rarely it goes up on the west coast. It usually breeds in warmer seas near the Galapagos Islands and Mexico. It is called “booby”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, probably because of the old Spanish name “pájaro bobo” – stupid bird. Nightingale says the fall migration for the birds, which has been happening since July, means more birds that normally show up in far-flung locations could make it to B.C. “Birds can be wired wrong, so they go the wrong way. They can go off course,” he said. “While the birds are moving, it is the best chance for them to get into the wrong places, and therefore, be a rare bird where they have appeared. “Certainly, birds are very excited when migration happens, whether it’s fall migration like we have now or spring migration where the birds are moving.” It encourages would-be birds to look at databases like eBird or the BC Rare Bird Alert page as migration continues and more birds make their way to the province.
