A rare seabird was spotted recently by a member of the public at a national park for the first time since 2007.
In mid-September, an ancient murrelet was observed in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, according to a report by Rocky Mountain Outlook. The bird is native to Asia, but about half of the world's population now lives in Canada. It belongs to the same family of seabirds as the puffin.
The only other time in recorded history that an ancient murrelet was found in the national park occurred in 2007 at Lake Minnewanka.
"I feel privileged. This is a highlight for me," said Marc Breau, the Banff resident who first spotted the bird in the park, according to Rocky Mountain Outlook. "It's a long ways from home; it had to fly over mountains and from what I can tell, it is a non-breeding adult or a juvenile."
While this bird is rarely seen in Alberta, experts say the most likely to appear are juveniles that have wandered off-course from their migration pattern across the Pacific Ocean. This usually happens between August and November.
"I noticed this little spot out in the lake, and I thought that's not a normal bird from around here. It didn't look the same shape of any of the birds we had around here," Breau said, according to Rocky Mountain Outlook.
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"I waited and waited and he swam all the way along the lake and came up and got within 15 yards of me."
Like many other species, seabirds like the ancient murrelet are contending with the rapid warming of the planet due to human intervention and the overheating of the planet. Warmer ocean temperatures mean that their habitats and behavior may be forced to change.
This could result in more abnormal sightings of the bird where it's not normally found if it has to search for appropriate resources and shelter. This has also happened to the puffin in Maine, which is thankfully starting to rebound after suffering one of its worst reproductive years in decades in 2021.
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