Rare Nazca booby bird sighting near Vancouver Island leaves boat captain, whale watchers amazed
CBC
A Duncan, B.C. boat captain says it was the "highlight of her birding career" when she got a glimpse of a rarely-seen South American bird while out on a tour a few weeks ago.
Tasli Shaw says she was on a full-day boat trip in the Salish Sea on July 23 when she noticed a bird that looked different from the usual gulls she's seen over her 13-year career, just south of Trial Islands close to Victoria.
"[It] immediately registered as a stranger to the birder side of my brain," said Shaw, who works for the Ocean Ecoventures whale-watching company in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island.
"The way it was flapping its wings was very different from a gull species. It had very distinctive black bars on its wings as well."
Shaw says she immediately "jumped into action" and managed to get a video of the bird — which turned out to be a Nazca booby, a seabird native to the east Pacific, around Central America.
WATCH | Rare Nazca booby bird sighted near Trail Islands off coast of Vancouver Island
It's only the third confirmed sighting of the bird in the province, according to B.C. Rare Bird Alert.
"This sighting was very meaningful … to have the privilege to find only the third confirmed Nazca booby in the province," Shaw said. "It was the highlight of my birding career."
Shaw said the boat, with a number of curious passengers, was rocking in the rough sea. The bird itself was moving erratically.
She said once she explained to passengers what she was doing — "driving a big circle, trying to keep up with the bird and get good images of it" — and how rare the bird was, they were "very amazed."
On a trip that included sightings of a humpback whale and calf, and a harbour seal giving birth, the Nazca booby sighting was still the highlight, she said.
"I feel very privileged to get to be on the water so much, and I experience all of the other amazing seabirds that we have living here," she said. "To have the rare bird pass through is a cherry on the cake."
Matt Stolmeier, another boat captain who managed to get high-resolution pictures of the bird a day after Shaw's sighting, said he spun his boat around once he noticed the bird in the corner of his eye.
"Our network of wildlife guides and naturalists were notified of Tasli's sighting, so many of us were on high alert for this bird," he said. "It was a very exciting find."
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