Unusual Arctic sightings of seabird that ‘shouldn’t be there’ by Emily Blake, November 30, 2024, Cabin Radio
Usually at this time of year, short-tailed shearwaters are breeding in Tasmania, Australia, but several have been spotted in the Arctic in recent weeks.
John Chardine, a retired seabird biologist and research scientist, said his friend Gibson Porter recently encountered one of the birds in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.
“What’s this bird? We’ve got this real funny bird, we’ve never seen it in the community before,” Chardine recalled Porter writing in a text message.
“Sure enough, after I passed it by some experts on the seabird side in terms of ID, it turned out to be one of these short-tailed shearwaters.”
Chardine said Porter saw up to 10 of the birds flying in the community last week, which he called “very unusual” and “pretty amazing.”
“They shouldn’t be there,” he said.
In August and September, short-tailed shearwaters ordinarily fly thousands of kilometres south to Tasmania and off the coast of southern Australia to nest. By this time of year, they are normally laying eggs in the southern hemisphere.
In April and May, the birds migrate north and spend the non-breeding season from the Bering Sea to as far north as the Arctic Ocean.
It’s not only residents in Gjoa Haven who have reported strange sightings of short-tailed shearwaters in recent weeks. There have also been reported sightings in Inuvik, Paulatuk, Tuktoyakuk and Kugluktuk.
“On the one hand, it’s exciting. We’re getting to see birds that we haven’t seen before. But we really have no right to be seeing these birds onshore,” said Reid Hildebrandt, a bird expert based in Yellowknife.
Hildebrandt said he’s most surprised by a reported sighting of a short-tailed shearwater as far inland as Stoney Rapids, Saskatchewan.
Shayna Cossette, a wildlife photographer and biologist, is among those who saw the bird in the Saskatchewan hamlet.
“My reaction was: that’s definitely not supposed to be here,” she said.
Cossette said it took time for people to confirm the bird was a short-tailed shearwater adding she was “very surprised but also very excited” when that was confirmed.
She described the bird as being about the same size as a ptarmigan, featuring grey-black feathering and a slender bill with a hooked end, similar to a seagull.
Cossette said the bird she saw was “very exhausted.” She said she and others took it inside to warm it up and feed it some fish before releasing it on the water “to give it the best chance to continue on its journey.”
What’s causing this?
What’s causing some birds’ late return to their breeding grounds, and the unusual sightings inland, is unclear.
Hildebrandt said one guess is that it’s due to a food chain collapse.
“These birds have been coming into the Arctic Ocean more frequently in the last few years, with the increased open water,” he said.
He speculated that the birds could be “possibly just looking for food sources and now not finding enough nourishment to continue their journey back home.”
Beachgoers in Australia have also reported many of the birds, commonly known there as muttonbirds, washing up dead onshore.
“Clearly they were having trouble finding food and this continued on the migration route down to Australia,” Charine said, adding it’s impossible to say whether those observations are related to the Arctic bird sightings.
He said the phenomenon in Australia could be due to climate change and seabirds not being able to adapt quickly enough.
“We know that the Pacific is warmed up hugely and there’s this warm water phenomenon that’s been happening in the North Pacific, and there’s been issues with other seabirds as well, not being able to get enough food,” he said.
“Eventually they might move and change that, change their habits in terms of where they migrate and even where they breed.”