It is only a little bird, weighing a few ounces, but the marbled murrelet is known for its remarkable ability to fly far out to sea to catch fish before returning in the darkness of night to inland treetop nests on mossy limbs.
It also inspires outsized devotion among those who want to study and protect it.
Royann Petrell of Courtenay on Vancouver Island has been an avid bird watcher since childhood, but in retirement she has taken up the cause of protecting the marbled murrelet’s habitat.
The seabird has been listed as “threatened” for decades as habitat loss on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border adds to its precarious existence.
Petrell’s birding
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