I was sitting at home on Sunday morning when I noticed this report on the MA
listserve - “A photo of a Brown Booby at Cobbetts Pond in New Hampshire was
posted on the Mass Audubon Facebook page”.
With a bit of research on Facebook I found a photo of a Brown Booby
perched just a few feet away on a deck railing, and based on the timing of the
post, it was apparently from the day before.
Given that it was found by a non-birder, the good news was that it was
posted somewhere on the internet. And
the MA listserve post was soon picked up on the NH listserve to spread the
word. The bad news was that this info
was now a day old.
A
few minutes later another post on the MA listserve mentioned that although the
bird spent the entire night on that railing, the bird was no longer perched
there. So much for chasing after a Brown
Booby in NH – the first state record. Then
again if the bird had stuck around I likely wouldn’t have had time to chase it
anyway - I had a busy Sunday ahead of me, with an afternoon family commitment
plus a flight out that evening. So no
need to increase my blood pressure to worry about how I could squeeze in a rare
bird chase. If only the news had gotten
out on Saturday.
Just
when I was starting to relax, this post came in on the NH listserve a few
minutes later – “Bird is there now. By the town
beach. I am in contact with the home owner. Gooooo” I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad
news. If I was to go after the bird I
needed to do it that day since that evening I was leaving on a week-long trip. But my flight was out of Manchester, NH that
day instead of Boston. Just maybe I
could try for the bird along my way to the airport. But I was getting ahead of myself - where was
Cobbett’s Pond anyway, and was it anywhere near the Manchester airport? With a quick search I found the pond in
Windham, which was in southeast NH, not too far off my route to the Manchester
airport. Maybe this could work after all. Luckily my afternoon family commitment was
over early enough to give me a tiny window to try for the bird – as long as the
bird cooperated quickly I could do it.
And then I got a notification that my flight was delayed by 45 minutes –
a rare time when it was good news to hear that your flight is delayed. The stars were starting to align…
As I drove toward the pond I got word that the Booby was often
perched on a roof that was at eye-level with the road to the town beach. So although there was no parking there, a
slow drive-by could be successful. I was
optimistic, despite my painfully slow route through the greater Nashua area. (Does every traffic light need to be red?) And then I got another alert on my flight –
it was back on-time. Now I had maybe
just 5 minutes to look for the bird. Where
is a green light when you need it?
I neared Cobbett’s Pond and made sure no one was behind me so I
could go slowly past the houses where the Booby preferred to roost. And just when I could see the area ahead of
me I spotted a birder standing on the side of the road with his camera raised. I slowed to a crawl, looked to the left, and
there was the Brown Booby most cooperatively perched on the roof! A minute later I parked in the last available
spot at the town beach, took a quick walk back up the road, and took this photo
of the Booby by holding my phone up to my binocs.
Two minutes later I was back in my car and on my way to the
airport. I made my flight with plenty of
time to spare. Isn’t it great when a
plan comes together?
As a postscript – it turns out that the Booby continued at Cobbett’s
Pond for more than a week, so I could have seen it in a much more leisurely fashion
after I returned from my trip. Then
again, the stress of hoping it would stay while I was on the road would have
been difficult to take.
Brown Booby was #362 for my NH list, and an amazing first record
for the state. I’ve now seen this
species in 4 states, including a long-staying (but difficult-to-find) bird on
Cape Cod back in 2011.
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