An extremely rare bird is helping drive the local economy around a small village in Newfoundland this summer, giving the usual natural stars a run for their money, specifically with new tourist dollars coming in from around the world because of it.
A single Steller’s sea eagle has been calling North America home for the past couple of years now, having veered off course somewhere along the way from its familiar home in Russia and Japan, where there are only about 4,000 left in the wild.
It is the only one of its kind here in the western hemisphere.
In both this year and the last, the lone raptor has called Trinity Bay its new summer home.
It’s not surprising why, really, with its trillions of capelin, the small fish attracting predators large and small, such as humpback and grey whales, bald eagles, and much more to its shores each spring and summer.
The Steller’s sea eagle easily stands out from the other eagles in the area, of which there are plenty, due to its size. It is approximately 25 percent larger than a bald eagle.
It also has a distinct larger beak which is bright orange to yellow in colour.
"The Steller's sea-eagle was named for a noted 18th-century zoologist and explorer, Georg Wilhelm Steller," says the San Diego Zoo’s website. "It is considered the most powerful and aggressive of its closest relatives, the bald eagle and the white-tailed sea-eagle."
Bird enthusiasts have flocked to the area to watch the eagle up-close with their array of telephoto camera lenses and binoculars.
Skipper Bob, of Trinity Eco-Tours based in the small village of Trinity nearby, usually runs two boats to ferry nature lovers out on the water to follow the big stars of the ocean in this area, humpback whales.
However, he has been having to split up the vessels with one chasing whales while the other carries birders from all over the world arriving to catch a glimpse of the rare eagle up close.
My wife and I are whale-watchers, and we returned to Trinity last week after a five year absence to visit with our beloved humpbacks, watching them breach, and to enjoy those special moments when they approach our small boat with curiosity and interact with us.
This summer, the added bonus for us was that beautiful rare eagle.
Skipper Bob has been running his on-the-water tours for 15 years now, and has kept a close eye on the Steller’s sea eagle as it hunts and lives among the wildlife in his rocky oceanfront neighbourhood.
We were fortunate enough to visit with the bird on two different days, quietly puttering along and then drifting in front of the shore where it was perched on the top of a short pine tree jutting out from a rocky cliff 30 feet above the water.
It didn’t pay much attention to us and our camera-clicking, having seen plenty of humans by now.
And plenty of humans have seen it now as well, with the daily boat visitors, and a Facebook page boasting over 6,000 followers, which to Skipper Bob’s chagrin, is more than he has, he tells us.
Beyond that, of course, he is clearly in awe of the bird as much as the rest of us, and is no doubt enjoying the rewards for his business and to Trinity’s local economy, as it draws in tourists of a different kind, those of the birding world who would not normally find themselves there.
The opportunity to capture such a rare bird in the wild is a dream come true for many of the bird-watchers clamouring to the area.
The skipper knows that full well, and does his best to fulfill those dreams as best he can while pocketing a few dollars.
Knowing Bob well over the years, the money is no doubt good, but he is a nature lover more than anything, and his enthusiasm shines through when on the boat with him.
“A stellar sighting. Seen near Old Bonaventure on Trinity Eco Tours morning trip. Skipper Bob delivered,” wrote one visitor on Facebook page for the eagle, which is exactly the kind of comments he likes to see online and hear in-person from his clients.
For those who are not able to track down the Steller’s sea eagle in-person, Audubon has an impressive website tracking the bird’s travels over the past couple of years which can be found here.
