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© Clive HarrisA yellow-nosed albatross
The albatross is the most romanticized and least seen bird along Maryland's coast.

The legends are foreboding. The birds are perceived as the souls of lost sailors. Spotting one means a storm is coming and killing one, even accidentally, is bad luck.

But July 15 when one flew by Capt. Monty Hawkins' boat 20 miles out in the Atlantic, it didn't bring any ill. It brought excitement.

"I knew I'd seen something vastly different," he said.

Hawkins sent a message to birder Mark Hoffman and was able to identify the bird as a yellow-nosed albatross, an endangered albatross species with a wing span of 6 1/2 feet and a life span of 30 years, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Seeing an albatross off Maryland is very rare, Hoffman said.

"In the North Atlantic it's very exciting. There are only two confirmed records in the state," he said.

The last verified sighting was in 2009 and before that 1975, with a handful of unconfirmed sightings in between. Hawkins was unable to snap a photo of the bird, so it is likely his sighting will remain unofficial.

When he first spotted the bird it was less than 100 feet away from his charter boat, he said. At the time he was chumming for mahi mahi and shark.

"Time I gave Wes a camera and jammed her throttles up full, bird was gone," he said, talking about the boat.

The bird's unique flight pattern also made it easy to spot, he added.

Hoffman has gone on multiple birding trips aboard Hawkins' vessel, and said he is good at approaching and spotting birds.

"I don't have any doubt that he saw an albatross," Hoffman said.