ML621669184

Observation details

Made an early morning run into South Boston, (to avoid traffic and mid morning rain), to poke around for a Brown Booby that was reported shortly before midnight last night. I made a couple of stops along Columbia Road on my way towards the Curley Community Center. From a good distance I could see a sulid parked on a piling, leaving the only question, “is it a booby or a gannet?” I parked by the Curley Community Center and had post card field guide views of a teed up clear cut immature Brown Booby, based on the yellow feet, mottled dark streaking of the off-white colored chest, otherwise brown throughout, bone colored bill, with a fair amount of blue/purple flesh surrounding the eyes, indicative of an immature male bird, as adult males have this coloration about the eyes and adult females develop more yellow colored flesh in this area. This was a very easy ID as compared to many of the previous Massachusetts Brown Booby sightings of fly by offshore birds in poor viewing conditions like fog, heavy wind, and/or rain. Knowing this is a species most Baystate birders have never seen, I wanted to get the word out early, (but not crazy early, so I did wait until closer to 6am to post on the MA MARC Review Birds Only Group Me), so others could beat the traffic and incoming rain. Plus the fact that only the rare bird knows how long it will stick around! Fortunately this bird stayed for a handful of days allowing hundreds of birders to see it!