Date: 6/18/25 8:44 am From: <lehman.paul...> via groups.io <lehman.paul...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] La Jolla Masked Booby and Pigeon Guillemot
Wednesday morning the 18th, Paul Mulholland and I did seawatching at La Jolla, my arriving first at civil Twilight no later than 5:30 a.m. and in the first half hour saw 1200 Black vented shearwaters, plus a few Sooties. But the big excitement happened first between 7:15 and 7:20 when we had a breeding plumaged Pigeon Guillemot flying north, the first time there may well have ever been a guillemot, or murre for that matter, seen flying North, as typically all these rare alcids seen here are going south. And then between 7:45 and 8:00 a.m. a sub-adult black and white booby appeared and proceeded to spend 15 minutes circling around the fishing boats, diving into the water and getting fish. Given that the bird appears to be at least 2 years old and showed an entirely greeny yellow bill, we believe that it was a Masked Booby. PM got some very distant shots that clearly show a sub-adult black and white booby but may or may not be able to see bill color. It disappeared a few minutes after 8:00 a.m. and we don't know where it went. The other bird worth mentioning is that numbers of of breeding plumage adult Heermann's Gulls are now returning, Right on time.
Paul Lehman, San Diego
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