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| Mystical birds - a pair of Spectacled Eiders. Photo: Laura Whitehouse via Wikimedia Commons |
AN uncertain future beckons for Alaska's population of Spectacled Eider duck.
The American state possesses extensive reserves of coal, oil, natural gas, zinc, and lumber, but extraction has been put on hold to safeguard the frigid habitat of birds and other wildlife not known to exist on many others parts of the planet.
But it is feared President Trump's readiness to see commercial exploitation of minerals wherever they exist could lead to the demise of Spectacled Eider - particularly near the 22-mile wide Teshekpuk Lake where they breed.
The species has made recent headlines after a vagrant drake - whether from Alaska or from Siberia - appeared off the island of Texel on the Dutch Coast, south of its European range to an unprecedented degree.
The curious-looking has been a magnet for birders from Britain as well as their counterparts from all over continental Europe because opportunities to see the bird in winter, outside the Bering Sea, are so few and far between.
Because its habitat is so inaccessible, information about the species is relatively scant, but an article entitled 'Migration of The Spectacled Eider' appeared in the May 1923 edition of The Canadian Field Naturalist.
Wrote Joseph F. Bernard: "In the fall of 1921, I was shipwrecked on the coast of Siberia at Cape Lutke in Bering Strait and was compelled to go into winter quarters at this place.
"We remained there until July, 1922.
"There was some open water in Bering Strait all winter except for the month of February, 1922.
"At any time in the open water, we could always see various species of ducks.
"I noted Spectacled Eider in the fall through November and December.
"However, during the months of January, February and March - though the natives of North Head reported that they had seen duck in the open gaps in the ice - I did not see these myself and therefore cannot tell what species they were."
The writer continued: "It seems the the spring migration of the Spectacled Eider begins about the middle of April.
"From my journals, I note that I saw the first on April 17, 1922.
"On April 20, I went out on the ice to a large area of open water. This happened to be a fine calm day, unusual for this locality.
"Over an expanse of about 15 miles square, it was completely covered with Eider Duck.
"King Eider were the most common by far.
"Next in point of numbers were the Pacific Eider, but there was also a great number of Spectacled Eider.
"At the same time I noted a few Steller’s Eider.
"I hid between two ridges of ice and fired a rifle shot across the water.
"The duck rose in a mass and began to circle around.
"I estimated the flock to be half a mile in width and several miles long. The flock was so thick that it obscured the sun.
"They did not see me as I was well hidden and they passed over my head not more than 15 feet above me.
"I had a splendid chance to identify the duck and was amazed that there could still be in existence so many Spectacled Eider."
The global status of Spectacled Eider is "near threatened", and its prospects are also being undermined by global warming.
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| How the Dutch media has been reporting the exotic bird that has turned up in their waters |
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