Yesterday afternoon at 2pm a very interesting sulid passed Field 2 at Robert Moses State Park that showed many characteristics consistent with an adult Masked Booby. Below are my field notes written immediately after the sighting. "“Picked up the bird in scope when it was at roughly “1 o’clock “ and slowly being pushed west by the ENE wind. Immediately stood out as an adult or near adult sulid. It was drifting and making wobbly circles and not actively feeding. It wasn’t giving me a dorsal view of the spread wing, but even in profile the amount of black seemed extensive in the primaries. I could see black feathering at the base of the light colored bill. The head color matched the white of the body. When the bird finally banked I could see the black extended past the primaries and included all the secondaries as well. The only white on the upper wing was the leading edge back to the coverts and from the body to the wrist. The black appeared solid and not blotchy. Overall the bird appeared smaller and less powerful than NOGA”
An attempt to race to get ahead of it and seawatch from Long Beach proved fruitless. Although not a chaseable bird, it's worth getting the word out as a reminder that early autumn easterlies can produce along the coast. This year there were (and still are) numbers of Brown Booby and other more "tropical" species in the NE which will likely reorient with each passing cold front and cooling water temps. Good birding, Sean Sime Brooklyn, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
