A rare bird tangled in fishing wire has local birders calling for vigilance from lake users.
On Tuesday, July 2, Liz Barrett was out paddleboarding on Alta Lake. In the distance, she spotted a surf scoter gliding on the water. An avid birder and photographer, Barrett had her camera with her and took a photo with her long lens. It wasn’t until she got home and uploaded the photo she realized the bird had tangled fishing wire and a lure on its back.
“When I got home, I put it up on my computer, and I'm like, ‘What the hell?’ And on its back, it seems to have a very large lure," she said. "And I would think it probably come from the sea—this looks like serious fishing gear. If you look on the back, you also see this like green nylon [fishing wire]. It's all wrapped up. So, this poor bird has got this lure attached to its back.”
She’s gone out paddleboarding since and hasn’t seen the bird again.
Surf scoters are usually only seen while migrating through Whistler, with the western population breeding primarily in Alaska, but also in northern Yukon and northwestern Northwest Territories.
Barrett hopes education and vigilance will prevent incidents like this in the future.
“I think a lot of the fishermen are very responsible. It’s the odd tourist that will come through that is just not aware,” she said.
She suggests signage to remind anglers and bins for discarding fishing equipment.
Longtime local glaciologist Karl Ricker is a birder with Whistler Naturalists, and he said there are only a few sightings in Whistler of scoters each year while migrating.
“Usually it’s [groups] of one or two or three, but occasionally it's big flocks,” he said, noting Green Lake is their most popular sighting spot, with Alta and Shadow Lake rarely attracting sightings.
While it’s unknown what exactly happened to the scoter or its fate, there are options for people who find a bird needing help.
Barrett encourages anyone who sees a bird in distress to post on the Whistler Naturalists Facebook page or the Sea to Sky Birding page. Members will swiftly work to rescue the bird from harm and get it the care it needs.
There are designated wildlife rehabilitation centres in the Lower Mainland that can take in birds, assess the likelihood of rehabilitation and heal them, or euthanize them if necessary.
Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Delta rehabilitates raptors and Wildlife Rescue Association of B.C. in Burnaby also takes bird species.
