ML618214247

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Saw a bird flying away having just passed over me that looked somewhat like a cormorant from behind. But was blown away when it changed course and I saw the flight profile of a sulid along with its long wings and languid flight style. Had thick neck and large bill and appeared all brown in decent light (afternoon sun at my back). Ran to the car and grabbed my camera but could not get a focus lock even though I could still see it in the viewfinder. No explanation for why it was there in the middle of the fields in Wharton County (see update below). Obviously flying purposefully to the northeast at a height of about 50 meters. Only other candidate would be a Northern Gannet, but could see no white upper tail and looked generally dark below. Gannets are normally never seen inland on the Gulf Coast unlike Brown Boobies which even been see in downtown Houston and numerous inland locations. Originally seen at about 100 meters and lost it at about a half mile. Everything I saw fit with young Brown Booby which I have seen many times. Totally gobsmacked about where it was. Update: Looked at recent Brown Booby records and an adult was seen in Fort Bend County (county east of Wharton) on the previous day, April 28th, and another young bird was photographed near downtown Houston earlier on the same day, April 29th. Interestingly, all of these sightings were away from water of birds apparently on the move. Apparently, there was a movement of Brown Boobies inland. Whether this is related to the strong, sustained south winds which caused coastal flooding associated with a front that stalled out just north of Houston on the weekend is impossible to confirm. But something had these birds moving. Update 2: As it ends up I took some shots after the bird had moved way off that generally capture the shape of the bird but are certainly not diagnostic.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

ISO

2000

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/8000 sec

Dimensions

814 pixels x 666 pixels

Original file size

40.63 KB