A few weeks ago we wrote about the bomb cyclone that tore through the northeast in late February and how it might impact seabirds that winter on the open ocean. We had pondered whether dovekies, those smallest of the alcids (the family of birds that includes puffins and guillemots), might be found along the Maine shores in higher numbers after the storm.

The survival of these seabirds on the winter seas brought to mind a story we’d heard ages ago about a legendary cod fisherman. His name was Howard Blackburn. While fishing from a dory during a storm on the Grand Banks in January of 1883, he and his partner couldn’t find the schooner that was their home base. Their only recourse was to try to row the sixty or so miles to Newfoundland. His partner died and at some point, Blackburn lost his gloves so he allowed his hands to freeze onto the oars so he could keep rowing. After about five days he made it to Newfoundland but lost parts of fingers and toes from frostbite. He went on to be a successful businessman in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

It’s a remarkable story of resilience, and it gives a sense of the razor’s edge between life and death on the northern sea in winter.

As we mentioned in our earlier column, birds like dovekies and murres and other species that spend the winters in the northern seas are well suited to survive there. But heavy storms make it hard for them to feed. When those storms last a long time or come in quick succession, some of the birds are weakened and can end up being pushed up near shore.

The bomb cyclone in late February moved through the Northeast relatively quickly, but there did seem to be an impact on some of these ocean-wintering birds.

On February, three dovekies were found at Parsons Beach in Kennebunkport. Dovekies were reported to eBird after the storm at a number of other Maine locations as well, including off Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Fortunes Rocks in Biddeford, East Point Sanctuary in Biddeford Pool, Crescent Surf and Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth, Portland Head Light, and Harpswell. We’ve heard that there may have been still others found and taken to wildlife rehabilitators, with mixed success.

Dovekies had been found near shore as far south as North Carolina even before the storm, presumably linked to the cold weather earlier in January and February. There were even some that were photographed in the Azores, in the North Atlantic, halfway between Maine and Portugal! These pre-storm observations were also perhaps related to the very cold weather earlier in the year.

A number of thick-billed murres showed up post-storm nearshore as well. Perhaps the most shocking was one that ended up in a snowbank in someone’s backyard in Topsham, about 15 miles from the ocean. That bird was among those picked up and taken to a wildlife rehabilitator.

We’ll be curious to hear if any of you have any stories that may have not made it through the grapevine about birds impacted by the bomb cyclone of February 2026.

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Vice President of Boreal Conservation for National Audubon. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. He is a coauthor of the seminal “Birds of Maine” book and author of the “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the popular books, “Maine’s Favorite Birds” (Down East Books) and “Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Site and Field Guide,” (Cornell University Press).