As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 6 August 2015

Rare sighting of legendary albatross off Maryland coast

Rachael Pacella, DelmarvaNow2:06 p.m. EDT August 6, 2015

The last verified sighting was in 2009 and before that 1975, with a handful of unconfirmed sightings in between.


The albatross is the most romanticized and least seen bird along Maryland’s coast.

The legends are foreboding. The birds are perceived as the souls of lost sailors. Spotting one means a storm is coming and killing one, even accidentally, is bad luck.

But July 15 when one flew by Capt. Monty Hawkins’ boat 20 miles out in the Atlantic, it didn’t bring any ill. It brought excitement.

“I knew I’d seen something vastly different,” he said.

Hawkins sent a message to birder Mark Hoffman and was able to identify the bird as a yellow-nosed  rare, an endangered albatross species with a wing span of 6 1/2 feet and a life span of 30 years, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Seeing an albatross off Maryland is very rare, Hoffman said.

“In the North Atlantic it’s very exciting. There are only two confirmed records in the state,” he said.

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