At the risk of irritating the list moderators, I'd like to provide a
summary of the responses I received about the Sulid photo from the Alabama
coast. There was a lot of interest in the issue.
I received >10 responses, and there was considerable uncertainty expressed
about ID. I'm still searching for a "consensus" view of species ID. At the
request of one respondent, I added some closeup images of the bird to the
web site (below). Unfortunately, these are the only photos I have.
Here's a summary of the responses:
A.) Folks that were more or less certain that it's a N. Gannet in an
intermediate plumage (not hatch year, but not adult; most likely 2nd year) = 3
B.) Folks that were less certain, but thought it was a NG = 1
C.) Folks that thought the bird was unlikely to be a NG, and instead
suggested Blue-footed Booby = 1
D.) Folks that suggested Masked Booby = 1 (1 person noted that some people
would think it might be a MB, but thought that the features don't match)
E.) Folks that simply suggested Booby of some kind, without details = 3
One respondent noted that a number of juvenile N. Gannets have been found
stranded on the upper Texas Coast in the past 2-3 weeks. That person as
well as one other noted, based on their experience in the Gulf, that
juvenile NGs are pretty common there in the summer (although they usually
stay farther offshore).
http://www.vims.edu/fish/students/dhewitt/sulid_AL.htm
Dave Hewitt,
Gloucester, VA
