Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 17:53:16 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Stan Arnold Subject: [de-birds] [MDOsprey] blue-footed booby (not seen since 7/24?) Comments: To: Delaware Birding Comments: cc: macrobert@skyandtelescope.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi Folks, After seeing the post concerning a Blue-footed Booby in Delaware on the DE listserve at about 12:30 today (Sunday, 28 July), I was looking for details, and just got off the phone with Alan MacRobert of Bedford, Mass., who with his wife Abby Hafer, sighted the bird on Wednesday, 24 July, around sunset, just south of South Bethany, DE. This is within a mile or two of Maryland. The bird apparently has not been seen since. While Mr. MacRobert is not currently an active birder, he was at one time quite serious about birding, and his wife is a zoologist. Not quite sure of what they had seen, they went out and purchased a copy of Sibley the next day to identify the bird, and then got on the phone with some folks back home in Massachusetts, after which the word eventually trickled back to Delaware. Mr. MacRobert reports that he and his wife were walking the beach on the evening of 24 July, and first noticed the bird in the water, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile south of the southmost cottage in South Bethany, on what appears to be Fenwick Island State Park property. When they returned to where the bird had been, it was no longer in the water, but sitting on the sand. They were able to approach the bird within two feet, when, instead of running or flying, it lifted its wings up and squawked. The feathers appeared worn, and Mr. MacRobert said he thought the bird looked exhausted. He described the bird as having pale blue feet, a blue bill, blue eyes, a brown back, and a white and brown striped head. There were dark markings around the base of the bill and around the eye. He said the bird was not the right shape for a gannet, and having studied Sibley was certain it was the booby. Mr. MacRobert and his wife looked for the bird again on Friday and Saturday, but could not relocate it. Other birders who got the word have also apparently been searching. Mr. MacRobert is leaving South Bethany tomorrow (Mon., 29 July), and will best be contacted by email at: macrobert@skyandtelescope.com I'm posting this to both DE and MD listserves in the hopes that people in the area will be on the lookout for this bird. Stan Arnold Glen Burnie, MD blackrail@earthlink.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================