Date: 9/27/25 8:32 am From: <sshultz...> Subject: Brown Booby Lee/Chatham NC
For those not on local/state GroupMe, or don’t regularly follow eBird RBAs, but still want to know about/maybe see a bird rare to the area, an adult Brown Booby was discovered along the Cape Fear River near Buckhorn Dam (bridges Lee and Chatham County) and is still being seen on this date. The bird is often seen perched on a snag just downstream from the NC42 bridge over the Cape Fear at the Lee/Chatham border. Safest viewing is from the boat ramp on the north/Chatham side of 42. From here, look downstream past the bridge for an obvious snag on the right (Lee County) bank. If the bird is not perched here, it may be on a similar snag on the Chatham County side of the river. To see it there, it’s necessary to walk across to the middle of the bridge (not recommended) or try and stand in a safe place on the Lee County side of the bridge and look back across the river.
There is a good, dry, and safe-from-cars viewing spot from under the bridge on the Chatham County side. The bird will be in Lee County from this vantage. The slope leading from road grade to under-bridge spot is steep, rocky, and slick, so use caution. We don’t want a broken ankle 😊
Since this is a first report for both Chatham and Lee Counties, and a review species for the state bird records committee (about 5 prior inland records), it is important to document the specific location of the bird.
This just basically means it is important to understand the differences in how eBird “locates” a bird and the “rules” used by many listers and by bird records committees. eBird attributes all the birds you record on a (stationary) checklist to the place where the observer is (not where the birds are). Usually this makes no difference at all. But when you are looking across a boundary, it may matter if you are trying to document presence in a particular county/state/country. It gets a little more complicated with traveling checklists, but the point is really the same. eBird does not know (or really care) if a bird you are seeing while birding near a border is in one or the other political entity. Which is fine, eBird has different goals. eBird is happy that there is a Brown Booby within a few hundred yards of spot “x”. Doesn’t really care if it is in one, the other, or both states/counties/countries. From a science perspective, the bird was there.
But birders usually keep lists, and those lists are usually geographically bounded. State/county/country “listers” and the committees who maintain the official (or semi-official) lists for those areas typically desire more accuracy in the specific location of a rare bird. In this particular case, since I wanted to document the booby in both counties, both for potential BRC use and so that my own lists were accurate, I waited until the bird flew to the other side of the river and then ensured that I had an eBird checklist that matched that location.
At this point I believe we have enough documentation to show that the bird was present in both Lee and Chatham Counties, but if you are a competitive lister or a county lister (or just want to have a fair comparison with other listers), be aware of the eBird policy that will assign your bird to the county where you stand, not the county where the bird is. This is, of course, easily fixed. Just want to make sure folks recognize the difference (and realize that only 1.234% of folks a) are still reading, or b) care. 😊
