Jen C. of the Alaska Raptor Center here in Sitka sent in a couple of photos to the Sitka Birds e-mail list this morning along with the following note:
Just wanted to send out a note to let everyone know that we picked up a brown booby last night. Yes, you read it right…a brown booby. It landed on a fishing boat off of Kruzof and just decided to stay there. They called at around 9 last night to have us come pick it up.
It’s doing alright, but has a wound on its back and was cold and is very thin. Not surprising, since it is WAY out of its normal range of Mexico!
Since it is in rehab, we are not allowed to have anyone view the bird, but I attached a couple of photos. Amazingly cool bird! I have never seen one before!
Given the (as far as I know) unprecedented nature of this record, I asked for permission to share the photos more widely.
I wonder if this is related in part to the warm ‘blob’ of water in the Gulf of Alaska. I noticed this morning that temperatures at the Cape Edgecumbe buoy are still 54F – I haven’t tracked that enough to know if that is unusual for this time of year, however. Regardless, it’s an exciting occurrence and thanks to Jen for sharing it!
Update My brother pointed me to this blog post about Hurricane Ana’s remnants hitting the the Pacific Northwest and wondered if that might have something to do with the bird showing up here.
Update 2: Jen passed on an update on the bird’s condition and a couple of newer photos. I’ve posted them along with her update.
