Brown Booby - the one that got away!

Moderating the Sussex Ornithological Society's sightings board is usually fairly predictable but every once in a while a posting in the sightings queue makes you sit up and take notice. When I turned on my computer at 6:30 this morning, there was just one sighting in the queue waiting to be moderated but almost unbelievably it was of a Brown Booby seen on 2nd January on Hove Beach by Clodagh Bannerman. For a moment I was sceptical, surely it had to be a juvenile Gannet, but on looking at the photo attached to the posting, there was an image of what looked for all the world like a Brown Booby. This was bird I'd seen long ago in both Australia and Venezuela but to be doubly sure and not end up with egg on my face, I googled Brown Booby and had a look at a few images on line just to convince myself it really was one, before putting the news out to the local birding community. 

Clodagh's report above mentioned that she believed the bird had been taken into care but was there a slim possibility it could had evaded capture and still be floundering around on Hove Beach? Only one way to find out but with an entirely predictable outcome - an empty beach where the bird had been seen yesterday morning. One that got away unfortunately but what a fantastic find by Clodagh and one that I wish I could have added to my local year list being well within a 5 mile radius of home. This is the second Sussex record of a Booby following on from the Red-footed Booby at St Leonards in September 2016 which was also found by a member of the public and taken into care. Hopefully the next Booby to turn up in Sussex will be in better health and seen by many.

Hove Beach looking back to where yesterday's Brown Booby would have been


With some very big tides at the moment, we called in late morning at the Adur Estuary at Shoreham where most of the salt marsh was already covered despite there being another half hour until high tide. There was however an island of still exposed vegetation below the Norfolk Bridge onto which was packed 65 Snipe, 45 Redshank, 2 Curlew and singles of Greenshank, Grey Plover and Lapwing with 52 Teal nearby. Further along the coast, Brooklands (East Worthing) was by comparison quiet with just Coot, Moorhen, Little Grebe and Stock Dove new for my local year list.  However a large flock of waders on the beach on the seaward side of the A259 comprised 49 Ringed Plover and perhaps 100 Dunlin which frustratingly flew off before I was able to count them properly. 

Roosting Curlew, Greenshank, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Redshank & Snipe 

Teal

Stock Dove - a very underrated bird





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