Offshore Brown Booby

  

Well, these photos didn't come out very well, but I think they're still the best photos I have of a Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) in this area.  These were taken during an offshore pelagic boat trip on 21 August 2022.  (I think we were in Marin County when we encountered this bird.)  Brown Boobies are rare in Marin and Sonoma counties (they generally have a more tropical distribution), so I'm sharing a couple of pictures for the record, although I'm sure other folks on the boat trip ended up with better photos!

 

 

Tropical visitor

  

A rare sighting of a Nazca Booby (Sula granti) in Bodega Harbor today (5 June 2022).  Many thanks to Peter Colasanti for spotting the bird and to Rick LeBaudour for sharing two excellent photos (above and below). 

 

 

Nazca Boobies are resident in the Eastern Tropical Pacific — primarily breeding on the Galapagos Islands, Malpelo Island off Colombia, as well as smaller islands from Peru to Mexico.  They're rare in Northern California and this is the first record for Sonoma County.

This individual spent time throughout Bodega Harbor today, ranging from the north end near Mason's Marina and Porto Bodega and along the boat channel to the Coast Guard Station.  Not sure if it will be around tomorrow, but it would be worth a look!

It was a little distant for my camera/lens, but here are a few more shots.  Look for the orange bill and the white feathers in the center of the tail (from above, see last photo). These features help distinguish it from Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to Peter for getting the word out about this bird and to Rick for sharing his excellent photos!  

For the record

I had kind of an "off" day for bird photographs during the pelagic boat trip to Bodega Canyon and Cordell Bank on 6 October 2019.  I was often in the wrong place for photos, or the birds were at odd angles or just out of focus.  But for the record, here are some shots that were interesting for various reasons:

Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), a rarity in Sonoma County:

 

Flyby Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis):

 

Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes), an uncommon visitor from Australia or New Zealand:

 

A "ballet" of Buller's Shearwaters (Ardenna bulleri):

 

A Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) and the moon:

 

A record from the buoy

 

Check it out!  A Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) was spotted in Tomales Bay during an Audubon Canyon Ranch waterbird survey on 6 February 2016.  

Although quite a few Brown Boobies have been reported from the Farallon Islands during the last couple of years (up to 30 individuals in one day!), this is the first record of a Brown Booby in Tomales Bay.

Some of you probably noticed that this bird is sitting on an oceanographic buoy.  The buoy is maintained by UC Davis' Bodega Marine Laboratory.  Although sensors on the buoy are probably recording water conditions associated with El Niño, I'm guessing no one thought it would provide a biological record like this!

Although data collected at the buoy are not available right now, you can read more about the buoy here, and older data are available here.

Many thanks to Roger Harshaw for allowing me to share his wonderful photos.

No Trespassing, unless...

...you're an avian visitor and need a place to rest!

 

Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) perched on the Half Moon Bay Buoy (NDBC Station 46012) on 5 October 2014.

Blue-footed!

The last major influx of Blue-footed Boobies (Sula nebouxii) along the California coast was in 1972.  (Most of them nest in the tropics, e.g., on the Galapagos Islands and in the Gulf of California).  Since 11 September 2013, multiple sightings have occurred from southern California to Point Reyes, with a flurry of observations during the past weekend.  

Early this morning Alan Wight and Dan Nelson spotted the first Blue-footed Boobies ever recorded in Sonoma County!  The boobies flew by the bluffs near the outer parking lot on the southern end of Bodega Head.  I've heard that both Alan and Dan managed to get photographs.  Congratulations to both of them for having the foresight to be watching for boobies from Bodega Head this morning!

Dan has kindly permitted me to post a couple of his images here to share this exciting record.

 

These are juvenile birds, with darker heads and duller feet than adults.  But you can still see a hint of blue on the feet in the close-up below.

 

ADDENDUM (18 September 2013): Click here to see some of Alan's pictures.

P.S.  I was curious about the species name, "nebouxii."  According to the Dictionary of American Bird Names, it's after Dr. Adolphe Simon Neboux: "Little is known about Neboux except that he was Surgeon Major on the French exploring vessel Venus, which visited the coast of California in the course of a cruise extending from 1836 to 1839.  The Blue-footed Booby named in his honor in 1882 by Milne-Edwards, the eminent French Zoologist, was possibly based on a specimen collected on the Venus expedition."