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Brown Booby - Asseteague OSV Zone

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Joe Hanfman

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Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:58:00 +0000

Assateague at the OSV entrance at 8:30 and 11:00, Friday 7/24. 


First seen by Jane and me at 8:30 am near the entrance to to OSV Zone about 300 yards off shore. It flew in from farther out in the ocean. Barry Cooper and Gail M. relocated it with us at 11:00 am in the same area.  

The bird was uniformily dark brown on the dorsal side with no noticable white in the tail. On the ventral side it had a dark throat extending down to the breast. The belly appeared grayish. The was  white on the underside of the wing near the body . It did not have the slow wingbeat of a gannet, which was quickly noticed by Gail. The bird also appeared top heavy with more head than tail. 

At 8:30 am it was cloudy with good light for seeing the bird at ~ 300 yards. 

At 11:00 am it was sunny and the bird was a little bit farther out. It appeared to feed from a low distance over the water. I did not see it dive and splash like a gannet. It stayed on the surface for about 5 - 10 minutes and we could not see it. It then flew giving the four of us more views. 

We called Mike Walsh but did not relocate it once Mike got back with us. 



Thanks to Bill H, Ron G, and Frode for previous information. 



Good birding, 



Joe Hanfman 
Columbia, MD