INLAND Red-footed Booby, miscellanea

INLAND Red-footed Booby, miscellanea
By – 2:06 pm

Just in case anyone missed the extra significance, the Red-footed Booby photo’d earlier today, 29 Sep, by Patti Langen was flying over Leo Carrillo Ranch Historic Park in eastern Carlsbad, some 4-1/2 MILES INLAND. There is only one previous truly inland record for CA, photo’d earlier this month in inland Sonoma County, plus a couple records from inside San Francisco Bay which may or may not have rode ships into port. Elsewhere in the USA, there are single records for well inland in both Florida and Louisiana, NOT hurricane related. There was dense fog along the coast here this morning, and it is possible that the bird became disoriented and ended up inland. Or it simply wandered. When last seen it was heading west toward Batiquitos.

In other, much more mundane news, I had a Tropical Kingbird this morning in Presidio Park on the grassy slope with the magnolia trees. One Reddish Egret continues at the San Diego River mouth. Yesterday, a Yellow-headed Blackbird continued in the TRV near the Dairy Mart Road bridge. On the 27th, 5 Harris’s Hawks (all together) continued at Jacumba, and a very late adult male Black-chinned Hummingbird was at feeders in Tierrasanta.

Paul Lehman, San Diego