Masked/Nazca Booby in Monterey Bay!

Yesterday, August 24, was my first time leading on a Shearwater Journeys trip for the year, and it turned out to be a great day to be on the water. We had the calmest seas I've experienced in years and a very nice marine layer that lingered late into the morning. On the way back into the harbor at Monterey, about a mile or less off Pt. Pinos, I picked out a distant, but clearly very large Sulid flying over a feeding flock; the size and dark and light patterning quickly narrowed the options down to a couple species...Masked or Nazca Booby! Luckily Captain Tinker was willing to go check it out even though it was getting late, and we managed to stay on the bird and get to it quickly. The boob made several close passes, flying directly over the boat, and even did some plunge diving off the bow! On at least one occasion, it did successfully grab a fish.

This was one of those rare and special occasions where we had talked about our chances of finding a specific high quality rarity and had those hopes come to fruition. We were on the lookout for rare boobies all day, as it has been an excellent year for finding several species from San Diego north to Monterey, specifically Red-footed, Masked and Nazca. Incredibly, 6 species of Sulids have already been reported in California this year! It just seemed like there was bound to be one of these birds around.

However, the jury is still out on what species this is, or if it can safely be identified to species...immature Masked and Nazca (both Bird Police species in California) are notoriously hard to tell apart, and I have no experience with Masked in this plumage, or with Nazca whatsoever. If you have some familiarity separating these two species, I'm very interested to hear what you have to say. All photos in today's post can be viewed at full size, so please feel free to double click on images and comment away.

Below is a crop from the above shot, the best I was able to manage of the uppertail. Lots of molt going on.

And here is a garbage photo that at least does show the overall uppertail pattern again.

Whether Masked Booby, Nazca Booby, or the dreaded Slash Booby, I'm stoked.

An Incursion Of Boobies..."Never Tell Me The Odds"...The Goldmine of Melodrama

No, a small orange butterfly did not land on the tip of the bill of this White-breasted Nuthatch...the 'hatch is hoarding grubs in its bill, probably for some nuthatchlets in a nearby tree cavity. Laguna Campground, Laguna Mountains, CA.

Making booby jokes never gets old. We don't have many tits here in the states, so booby jokes prevail. Part of the title of this blog post comes from Uberblogger Nate Swick, who writes for 10,000 Birds, the ABA blog, and his very own Drinking Bird. How he has the time to do all this writing and research, have a real job (allegedly), and have a family is a mystery to me.

My field season has officially peaked folks. The Least Terns I've been monitoring are now officially doing horribly, and my work days will only be getting shorter as the weeks progress. It's pretty depressing. A lot of chicks are hatching, but only a tiny fraction are surviving, at least at the site I spend most of my time at. The Snowy Plovers seem to be doing a bit better at least...I got to band 5 adorable little plover chicklets yesterday.

This Steller's Jay was getting in on the maggot action as well. It was literally raining maggots from the trees, I've never experienced anything like it. Laguna Campground.

Otherwise, my status as Number 7 in the Nation continues to inspire people, birders and nonbirders alike. Some people could really use some of the education I can provide. To wit (whit?):

Last week, a singing Alder Flycatcher was reported in Northern California, and it was noted that its song was recorded. This is an exceptionally rare bird here, and nothing seals the deal of this staggering rarity like a recording of its song. Shortly afterward, it was decided that bird was actually an Eastern Wood-Pewee, which is fine, because this species resides on the same pleateau of crippling rarity here in the west. THEN, someone who actually knew what they were doing looked at the bird, and it was a fucking Eastern Phoebe...still a good bird here, but not a bird that would cause blood to boil (like the Curlew Sandpiper I saw on Sunday).

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? The misidentifications, the communication breakdowns...I feel sorry for anyone who went out of their way to look for this thing. No, I'm not shit-talking inexperienced birders (not that I can remember what that's like, hey-oh!), I'm just wondering how this phoebe was presented to the birding community on the duel delicious platters of Empidonax alnorum and Contpus virens...apparently sound recordings of this bird do exist, but as far as I can they are not privy to the birding masses. Although I have seen and heard  Alder Flycatcher all of once, I have run into the other species of this disastrous train wreck many a time, and I can tell you they do NOT sound alike.

It's an Alder Flycatcher...it's an Eastern Wood-Pewee...oops, no, its a Steller's Jay.

Perhaps the birding community is suffering...suffering from AN INCURSION OF BOOBIES!

No I'm just joking about that, I just had to say it. Anyways, to continue...Alder Flys and Eastern Wood-Pewees do look somewhat alike, yes...but NEITHER look like an Eastern Phoebe. All of these species are in different genera, for Christ's sake. A clusterfuck for the ages....only someone like C3P0 could calculate the odds of this chain of events unfolding at a relatively unknown fish hatchery in northern California...

Right. Speaking of clusterfucks and a big waste of time, I highly recommend you go check out the death of a cyber birding community in Maryland.......something like the Human Birdwatcher Project ("Birders are people too!") could probably do years of research on the goldmine of melodramatic and straight up hateful messages on there. The Drinking Bird has already linked to it, but I think this "discussion" really is funny to look at...check it out here!

Lark Sparrow. It has a face anyone can love. Laguna Campground.

California Ground-Squirrel...right? Laguna Campground.

This Western Fence Lizard is doing a stand up job (literally) at defending his piece of fence. Look at the height of that push up! Look at the hanging blue throat flap! I love it.

Lesser Goldfinch. They seem more dignified when not ravenously attacking a bird feeder. Old Mission Dam, San Diego, CA.

White-tailed Kite in regrettable light. I do like the affect it has on it the different shades of darkness coming through it's primaries and secondaries...it took me a while to realize/appreciate that. Old Mission Dam.

Forster's Tern. Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Imperial Beach, CA.

Marbled Godwits, a couple Whimbrels and a Willet. One of the Coronado Islands (Mexico) lurks/looms invitingly in the background. As you may be aware...there are boobies there. Tijuana Slough.

Pied-billed Grebe. It was probably trying to catch something with more fins or legs, not flossing with algae. Old Mission Dam.

Ok, I know some of you came here expecting to see some boobies, so here is a giant, white booby for you. Judging from the horror stories I've heard from other researchers, you do not want these boobies in your face though. This vicious Masked Booby was at Midway Atoll.

Spent Sitting Idly By

Grey-backed Terns enjoy being Grey-backed Terns.

Hmmmmmm well its Sunday. I woke up at noon so I'm still struggling to get a hold of reality. A baffling pre-dawn phone call about soy meat did not help the situation either......did that really happen? Last night was Doc Mel's going away party, which was fun but bittersweet. A lot of people are going to miss her around here. Sunday morning coffee/tea parties with cookies, brownies and cake will be no more.....it is quite tragic. No one has gotten to talk to the new doc yet so we can only guess that he will be able to adapt to life on Midway. I got into my first long-winded, alcohol-fueled political discussion with one of the ex-military Republicans here, which of course turned into conversations about jobs, girls and life in general. Good times.

So there is the March edition of Birding Magazine sitting in front of me here. I don't know whose it is or how it got here, but let's take a look at it. The front page is a photo collage of Empidonax flycatchers. For the uninitiated, they are a bunch of small, unremarkable looking brownish-green songbirds that all look exactly alike. I'm sure this stimulating cover will make this issue just fly off the shelves. On second thought, I think its best to not open it right now.



Red-footed Booby and Laysan Albatross on their morning commute.

John and Leona Klavitter, both biologists, returned last week from their Guam sojourn, and with Jimmy The Duck Jedi's arrival, it's starting to feel like a real wildlife refuge around here. Gary and I doing almost all the biological work out here for the past month has been fun, but its good to have some fellow biologists around...hopefully John will be able to direct me to some spots to check out the more obscure, hard to find birds that I haven't found yet (Tristram's Storm-Petrel, Bulwer's Petrel, etc.). If I can gather enough ambition I may try to apply for another job tonight, but this remains to be seen.

Well I'm low on inspiration today I guess. I will end this post with mentioning that while banding a Black-footed Albatross chick last week, it farted. I honestly had no idea birds farted.....I thought that while standing alone in a field of albatross a month ago, I heard a tell-tale fart sound, but this phenomenon has not been proven until last week. Amazing.



One of the few Masked Boobies on Eastern Island, on their favorite log.