FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Brown Booby invasion?

[Phoebetria@xxxxxxx]

Following Matt Hafner's sighting of a possible Brown Booby on the Lower 
Eastern Shore of Maryland 27 June (around Stone Harbor?), I hear from Paul 
Lehman 
that a second-year Brown Booby is flying around Cape May Point State Park with 
Greater and Cory's Shearwaters this morning.  This follows a rash of 
late-spring reports from the Carolina sounds.   It is likely that Brown Booby 
has been 
in Virginia waters this spring, then.   The state has few records, all of them 
older records.   This species likes to hang out on channel markers and is 
fairly tolerant of approach by people when perched.   (The CBBT would be a 
logical place to look for it, but past records have been in the Bay and around 
Lynnhaven Inlet.)   When foraging, the bird makes very shallow-angle dives, 
from 
low over the water, often quite different from the high plunges of gannets.   
Brown Booby is also a much smaller bird, much slenderer in profile (both body 
and wing; the wings look especially slender), not to be confused with gannet by 
those who know gannets well.    

Cape Charles news is scant.   Tom Saunders found an adult Blue Goose (blue 
morph of Snow Goose) oversummering on Crystal Lake (Washington St.), Cape 
Charles three days ago, a bird that continues there.   Alex Wilkie found an 
injured 
Purple Sandpiper on the jetty at Cape Charles on 17 June, quite a rare summer 
record for us.   The two Common Eiders have not been seen this month, despite 
checks of neighboring rip-rap around Bayshore Concrete Products and elsewhere. 
  As one was flightless (heavily molted), they probably have not gone far and 
might be down around the concrete ships at Kiptopeke State Park.   Lots of 
Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetles have been seen over the past 3 weeks on local 
beaches, a nice sight.   Young of most species -- including Orchard Oriole, 
Purple Martin, and House Finch in my yard, Osprey on the Bay -- are out of the 
nest.   It seemed to be a very good year for nesting birds overall, and Alex 
Wilkie reports excellent success in birds nesting on the barrier islands as 
well. 
  

Ned Brinkley
Cape Charles, VA (still booby-free)



You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email 
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.