I have business trips to the Bay Area in
California almost every month. But since
I don’t typically have any spare time on these trips, I usually do not do any
birding in the area. One notable
exception was 2 years ago when I added a day of vacation to chase after the
Falcated Duck that was seen nearby every day for months except the day I was
there (but that’s another story). On
this month’s trip it looked like I might have a couple free hours early one
morning, so I brought by binoculars along to do some nearby dawn birding. Since I had no particular targets in mind, I
thought I’d just do a bit of research once I arrived and find a nearby birding
hotspot to check out for a couple hours.
Early in my trip I started my research by
checking the e-Bird rare bird alert for California. I was hoping that there might be an eastern
warbler nearby to chase after as a possible new CA statebird. But way before I could scroll down to the
warblers I noticed many reports of Blue-footed Boobys, including several very
recent sightings. I’m used to seeing
reports of this species from the Salton Sea, but I was surprised that they were
reported in so many different counties. Since
that would be a lifebird, I wondered if any could be close enough to try
for. I downloaded a map of the counties
of CA, and checked all the counties listed in the e-Bird Booby sightings. Sure enough there was a recent sighting of
one in Marin County, just an hour away, at a place called Gull Rock. Apparently it (or several birds!) have been
there for weeks. I didn’t realize that
2013 had been something of a record year for Blue-footed Boobys in CA, with over
100 seen so far.
Now I just needed to figure out the
logistics of trying to see the bird. Gull
Rock was close enough that I could easily get there by dawn, look for the bird
for a while, and still get back in plenty of time for work. So that wasn’t an issue. The problem was that the posts suggested the
roosting spot was pretty far from the viewing locations – likely too far for
binoculars. If only I had researched
this before leaving I would have brought my scope along. What to do?
My spare time was the next morning so I had little time to come up with
a plan. I decided to see if I could find
a local birder who might meet me there with a scope. I went on the local listserve and found
numerous posts of birders seeing this bird, some dating back several
weeks. I sent e-mails to many of these
folks, and got responses from 5 or 6, with each giving good advice for finding
the bird. And 1 responded saying he could
meet me there with a scope. The only
problem was that he was a professional guide.
I didn’t want to have to pay to see this bird, but this seemed to be my
only option. So I hired the guide and hoped
that I would get a good return on my investment and get good looks at a
lifebird.
The next morning I met the guide and we
arrived at Gull Rock a bit before dawn.
The rock was indeed quite distant, and covered with hundreds of Brandt’s
and Pelagic Cormorants, along with a few Brown Pelicans and Heermann’s and
Western Gulls. As I started to scan the
rock with my binocs I noticed a bird on the edge of the rock that was similar
in size to the cormorants, but was sitting with a different profile – more
horizontal than vertical. And it wasn’t
as dark as the cormorants too. So I
wondered if I had found the Booby. Just
then the guide mentioned he thought he had the Booby in his scope – when I
looked through the scope it was the same bird I found and it was indeed the
Blue-footed Booby. The bird could have
been a half mile away, so even in the scope at 50X it was tough to see. But good enough to count as a lifer.
To get better looks we went to another
location that, with a short walk, we would be able to get much closer to Gull
Rock. We eventually refound the bird
from this vantage point, but it was mostly obscured by cormorants. I got brief views of the bird in the scope including
stretching its wings and even flying off the rock to feed on the ocean. Much more satisfying views than at the first
location.
 |
| Gull Rock in the distance - from the "closer" viewing spot |
Another highlight of this spot was the
numerous passerines in the brush on the coastal hillside, punctuated by numerous
calling Wrentits, including one that we saw very close. That’s the first Wrentit I’ve seen in many
years. Other birds included Bewick’s
Wrens, White-crowned Sparrows, and Spotted Towhees. A very birdy spot!
The Blue-footed Booby was ABA lifebird
number 737, Lower 48 lifebird number 715, and CA statebird number 357. And although a bit of planning on my part
would have avoided the need to hire a guide (and a scope!), I did indeed get a
good return on my investment. After all,
I’ve spent more to get a lifebird in the past, and spent more to chase after a
lifebird that I’ve missed.
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