Rare Sea Eagle, Native To Asia, Turns Up In Massachusetts

A Stellers sea eagle, a uncommon raptor native to elements of Asia and jap Russia, has been noticed mingling with bald eagles alongside a river in southeastern Massachusetts.

The beautiful eagle first turned up final week alongside the Taunton River, east of Providence, Rhode Island, and is believed to be the identical chicken that was beforehand noticed in Alaska and Canada, in accordance with a Facebook put up from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

Stellers sea eagles can weigh as much as 20 kilos and have a 6- to 8-foot wingspan. They have massive, cartoonish orange beaks and distinctive white plumage alongside their higher wings that resembles a splattered snowball.

News of the sighting despatched birders flocking to the world. One of them, Nick Lund, the advocacy and outreach coordinator for Maine Audubon, blogged concerning the expertise on his web site, known as The Birdist. Lund had been taking part in a Christmas chicken rely in southern Maine when he acquired a textual content from a colleague that mentioned Stellers was simply discovered.

Lund deserted the organized chicken rely, hopped within the automotive with some fellow birders and drove the 2 hours south.

We pull as much as the tiny, personal seaside the place the chicken was final seen to the dreaded you simply missed it! Lund wrote on his weblog. A birders nightmare. It flew upriver someplace and nobody is aware of the place it’s.

With their automotive almost out of fuel, the group drove off in hopes of catching a glimpse. Eventually, they acquired phrase that the chicken had been noticed at Dighton Rock State Park.

We go, park haphazardly, and there it’s, throughout the river with a bunch of Bald Eagles. Holy shit. Were screaming, Lund wrote. An absolute dream to be unexpectedly standing on this random park in southern Massachusetts a wild, uncommon Russian monster.

On their method house, the group stopped to buy a bottle of Russian vodka to honor our visiting Russian comrade.

This chicken of preys odyssey hundreds of miles from house has captivated scientists and lovers. As The New York Times reported in November, the misplaced eagle has been slowly makings its method east throughout North America. It was first noticed alongside the Denali freeway in southeastern Alaska in August 2020, and extra lately in jap Canada. It is even believed to have been sighted in Texas within the spring.

Weve by no means had one right here on this space of the world: the Northeast coast of North America or Massachusetts, Andrew Vitz, a state ornithologist, told The Boston Globe. This is just like the chicken of the last decade for individuals round right here.

Birds turning up exterior their regular vary, referred to as avian vagrancy, is comparatively frequent, typically the results of an animal getting misplaced or blown off beam in a storm.

Vitz advised the Globe that the eagle seems to be in good well being and there’s no plan to tag or seize it.

Its most likely looking for some acquainted faces on the market others of its personal species, he mentioned.

The complete inhabitants of Stellers sea eagles is estimated at 4,000 to 7,000 people. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the chicken as susceptible.