Chasing the Red-footed Booby

Red-footed Booby 💖

It has been far too long since I have updated this blog, and far too long since I went on a rarity chase! After finishing up field work in Utah and Idaho, I headed back west to Whidbey Island and Pennsylvania. After a short stint of visiting east and seeing the cardinals and catbirds, I flew back to Seattle at the perfect time-- a Red-footed Booby (Sula sula) has posted up in Port Townsend.

The bird is reported to be a juvenile male. He is perfectly perched on the roof of a marine science center at Fort Worden State Park. I got to the state park near sunset last night and scanned the gull flock near the center for a good two hours. Venturing to the nearby lighthouse, I sat by the water for a while and let the flowing rhythm calm my soul. Although the booby was nowhere to be found, I was hopeful it would show up in the morning.

Returning to my campsite at the state park, I bedded down in a nest of blankets in the backseat of the Volvo, reading for a few hours until dark. When the sun came up, so did I. I headed back toward the marine science center as Nirvana played on the radio. My search commenced in a similar fashion to the day before-- I scanned the gull flock that was now resting on the beach. When I brought my binos up to the roof of the science center, I saw someone who looked a bit awkward. There he was! The Red-footed Booby missed the memo on going down to the sand, staying up on the roof by his lonesome to preen his feathers.

I stayed for a while, watching him preen. Those feathers are responsible for hopefully getting him back to an area where he can find more of his kind. The study of vagrancy and the reporting of rare birds is a part of ornithology that I find bittersweet. I'm grateful to be able to observe this species so close-up in the wild, but can only assume that the climate-change fueled intense tropical weather may have pushed the booby up into the Puget Sound. Hopefully his appearance will spark some local interest in birding as it only takes one bird to fall beak over talons into this life.