Rare bird sightings in nature park attract international attention

Common shelducks — with their distinctive white plumage, upturned crimson beaks and dark-green heads — are often seen in European salt marshes.

But Dec. 17 marked the first time they've been recorded in the Maritimes.

Former Irving Nature Park managers Samantha Brewster and Kelly Honeyman discovered not one, but three common shelducks feeding in the Saint's Rest Marsh, among the largest salt marshes on the Bay of Fundy's north shore. The sighting — an unheard of event for local ornithologists — happened during Saint John's annual Christmas Bird Count.

"They had no idea what they were: they just knew that they were quite different," said naturalist Jim Wilson. "They described them to me when we got back together and I was puzzled as well."

A quick Google image search revealed an astonishing similarity to the common shelduck.

Upon seeing the birds for himself, Wilson's reaction was "wow, this is really something," he said.

"They are extremely rare in these parts," Wilson said. "They're not even recognized yet on the North American bird list."

Wrong turn?

While common shelducks are kept in zoos in North America, "there's a stronger case to be made that these are real, wild birds — not birds escaped from zoos," said Wilson.

They don't appear have the leg bands or clipped hind toes typically used to identify birds in captivity. They also "act like wild birds," Wilson said, feeding actively on their own, flying around when predators come nearby, and associating freely with wild ducks on the Saint's Rest Marsh.

"These are young birds with first year plumage," said Wilson, adding juveniles are more likely to wander off course as they migrate south.

Such misdirections have happened before.

Other waterfowl — notably pink-footed geese, greylag geese and barnacle geese — have strayed into North America from their migratory route south through Europe. Rarely, European birds end up in Newfoundland and Labrador. Even fewer, Wilson said, trickle down to the east coast.

• Fredericton bird watchers thrilled with arrival of rare goose

"These are likely wayward birds that just went the wrong way, or were carried by storms," Wilson said.

Solitary common shelducks have been spotted sporadically in Newfoundland and Quebec over the past decade.

Three birds hanging out together, however, is an unprecedented bird watching coup.

Uncommonly cool

Since the birds were first spotted, dozens of birders from as far away as North Carolina, Massachusetts, Ontario and New York have come to catch a glimpse.

Wilson hopes the data they're collecting will help make the case to the North American Bird Records Committee to add the common shelduck to its list of confirmed bird species in the province.

"This is an opportunity for local birders to contribute to citizen science and our knowledge of birds straying to North America," said Wilson.

The birds on the Nature Park are best seen from the boardwalk, or the trail that runs south along the western side of Taylor's Island, at high tide.

"I suspect these birds are here for the duration of the winter," said Wilson. "They seem to be settled in."

That being said, wannabe common shelduck-watchers will want to come prepared.

"They're not birds you're going to be able to see from five feet away: they're a long way off, and you need to look at them through scopes," he said.

"But this puts the Irving Nature Park, and Saint John, on the map."