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Subject:

Probable Brown Booby sighting (7/25)

From:

Fred Shaffer

Reply-To:

Fred Shaffer

Date:

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:43:26 -0400

I went out to Assateague with my brother early this morning and quickly caught up with a large group of birders at the entrance to the ORV zone.  I arrived a little after 8:15, and other birders had been there much longer.  We scanned the ocean without success.  The light was also pretty bad early in the morning with the glare and mist.  Gradually, people began to separate and go further down the ORV zone.  However, my brother and I stayed in the area, scanning the ocean.  We then walked down to the entrance to South Beach and set up our scopes on top of the dune at the end of the boardwalk leading to the beach, where Tyler Bell, Jane K., George Jett, Gwynn Brewer, and several other folks already were.  Visibility was getting better at this point and the slightly higher vantage point was good as well.  

Lots of tern flew by, most of which were Common Terns.  A few Forster's and Black Terns also passed by.   We also saw a few small groups of Whimbrel as well.  I counted 7 flying south, and 1 flying north.  Brown Pelicans were numerous, but we did not see any sulids until Gwynn spotted an odd looking bird far off to the north.  The bird circled over the water, gradually getting closer to our position.  Soon we were able to determine that it was indeed a sulid.  The bird continued to fly over the ocean, getting gradually closer to where we were.  The bird landed on the water once or twice and we were still able to view it due to our higher vantage point.  Soon the bird was flying approximately 250 yards or so directly off shore from our position.  We saw the bird from above and below and from multiple angles and all the marks that I saw were consistent with a juvenile Brown Booby.  The bird as decidedly dark brown overall, including the upperside of the wings, back, rump and tail.  I saw no white on the rump.  The birds throat was a dark brown.  The belly was a shade lighter brown (but still dark), with a subtle but visible demarcation or border where it met the darker brown on the throat.  The bird appeared all brown for the entire time I viewed it except on one or two occasions when it banked a certain angle and we caught a small amount of white in the axillaries and underwing coverts.

In all, we probably viewed the bird at flight and at rest for 10 minutes or slightly longer.  The time was around 11 AM and the light was good.  George got lots of photos, some of which will hopefully be identifiable.  Although the photos may reveal something that we missed, all the marks that I saw and were discussed were consistent with a juvenile Brown Booby, not a young gannet.  It was definitely exciting seeing this bird fly from multiple angles and relatively close (at least for a seabird).  The bird then flew off to the north and we were not able to relocate it.

Another bird of note was a flyby Roseate Tern heading south.  We saw the bird in close proximity to a Common Tern, and the comparisons were helpful (as were the translucent primaries, dark bill, and pattern of the primaries above).  The wind seemed to be coming from the south, which made the terns work extra hard to fly south.  This slowed their speeds enough that we were able to get prolonged, if distant views of the birds.

Assateague was overrun by visitors at this point, and we went to Skimmer Island, viewed from US 50.  Highlights there were a Gull-billed Tern, Tricolored Heron, Little Blue Heron, lots of Short-billed Dowitchers, 6 or 7 Black Skimmers, and a few turnstones.

Fred Shaffer
Patuxent MOS