In illustrator and humorist Rosemary Mosco’s new book, “The bird●ing Dictionary,” she defines a seabird as “A bird that gazed upon the sea with its violent storms, endless roiling waves, lack of shelter, and extreme temperatures—plus sharks, colossal squids, deadly jellyfish, and other assorted horrors of the deep—and said, This seems like a nice place to live.’”

While we have to wonder if Mosco is much of a sailor, her characterization of the challenges of living a life on the open ocean seems fair. For seabirds of the winter seas of northern oceans, perhaps especially so.

We are writing this in the midst of the blizzard and bomb cyclone of February 2026, otherwise known, apparently, as Winter Storm Hernando. Wind speeds are said to have been as high as 75 mph, the marine forecast mentions 15-18 foot seas, and it’s very cold outside. What do birds out on the open ocean experience when it’s like this?

Certainly seabirds of northern oceans have evolved to cope with tough conditions; otherwise, they wouldn’t still be around. But, we know that occasionally large numbers of some seabirds do in fact die and wash ashore, and many others are sometimes pushed close to shore or even inland under extreme weather. Dovekies, the smallest member of the North Atlantic auk family (the same family to which the beloved Atlantic puffin belongs), are one of the more famous of the auks to have large “wrecks,” as they are called, when many die or are pushed near-shore in a weakened condition. Thankfully, here in Maine, dovekie wrecks are not common, and they seem to have happened less frequently in recent decades. Most that have occurred have taken place in the period from late November through December. Dovekies, being birds that breed in the Arctic and winter in greatest abundance off Greenland and Labrador out to the Grand Banks, apparently usually start heading north from the Gulf of Maine by February.

A 2021 scientific paper with the memorable title of “North Atlantic winter cyclones starve seabirds” tried to use some big weather and bird tracking datasets paired with bird energy models to understand better how major winter storms might impact seabirds like dovekies, murres, puffins, and kittiwakes.

One thing they found was that more of the lowest pressure-highest wind speed winter storms occur in the northern seas (north of Maine), where the highest concentrations of many of the seabirds spend the winter. Their models of how much energy birds used in storms predicted that total energy use might not be higher since they have ways to adapt to cold and windy conditions. But what is likely happening during a storm is that they can’t find food very easily and may have to fast until the storm is over.

The smallest birds, like dovekies, their model predicted, may only be able to fast for a couple of days. That makes them particularly vulnerable to longer storms or storms that arrive too close in time. If the storm also blows them away from the best feeding areas, it will take time and energy to find their way back.

Given the spell of cold weather we had earlier, we wonder if dovekies or other alcids were wintering farther south in offshore waters than in recent years. If so, will more of the birds wintering in the Gulf of Maine be impacted by this storm? Assuming it was still out there, will that ivory gull that was spotted in January in Penobscot Bay be blown closer to the coast? Presumably, birders will be out looking along the shore in the coming days to see what seabirds the bomb cyclone of February 2026 might have blown in.

And when you’re ready to settle down in a warm chair after a day peering out to sea, consider picking up Rosemary Mosco’s funny and unique take on birding culture, “The bird●ing Dictionary”.

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).