Arctic dovekie rescued near Henlopen Acres
For the first time in what feels like forever, the Cape Region has been experiencing an extended period of cold weather. In fact, it’s been so cold, and the weather so turbulent recently, that birds typically associated with the Arctic have been found locally and rescued.
That’s what happened to Ian Bolland during a walk over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend when he found an Arctic dovekie hiding near his truck in the parking lot of the Henlopen Acres Beach Club. He said he was just about finishing his walk, when his girlfriend’s dog, Sushi, started to pull him in another direction.
All of a sudden there was this small bird hopping away and hiding under his truck, said Bolland. At first, he said, he thought it was a penguin because of how it was moving, but then he realized it was injured.
“It was stumbling around on the ground,” said Bolland.
Doing a quick bit of research on how to help the bird, Bolland said he saw stories about other Arctic dovekies being found and also got the information for Tri-State Bird Rescue in Newark. He made a call to the rescue and was told they could take the bird, but it would require him driving to their facility.
Bolland had to be in Baltimore later in the day, so, he said, instead of heading west over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, he headed north to the rescue first and then to Baltimore.
“I got there just as they were closing at 5,” said Bolland.
The bird seemed to relax as soon as it was captured and placed in his truck, said Bolland. The bird sat on the passenger seat of his truck the whole ride, he said.
“He kind of just stared at me with those big black eyes,” said Bolland, who didn’t have a great explanation for why he decided to go out of his way to save the bird. “I saw it was injured and didn’t give it a whole lot of thought.”
Bolland’s find wasn’t the only dovekie found recently. There have been reports of ones found in Ocean City, Md., and Assateague Island.
According to a Facebook post by Tri-state Bird Rescue, the organization has recently admitted at least four dovekies for care, which they described as unusual.
The rescue said dovekies are a pelagic species, living nearly all their life far from land in the waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean. They nest in the Arctic on rocky cliffs or islands within large glaciers, where they are protected from wind and predators.
The rescue cites Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website, which says dovekies can sometimes become stranded when strong, sustained, easterly winds make feeding conditions unsuitable and push the weakened birds landward.
A Tri-State Bird Rescue comment said, “[the] immense storm that pelted the east coast earlier this week was most likely a contributing factor, as citizens have been finding many stranded and injured dovekies on land within the last several days.”
