La Jolla Cove, July 7: alcids, distant W&B booby
Got to the Cove at the layabout late hour of 6:12.
On my first scan, i picked up a pair of pigeon guillemots sitting on the water on the north edge of the kelp bed in the Cove.
Did a couple of scans looking for shearwaters, etc. and when I looked back for the guillemots they were gone.
Lots of pelicans, gulls, terns and shearwaters way out, maybe >1.5 miles.
By 7:00 they had all moved too far offshore to be easily visible.
At 6:48 had a common murre flying south, and another at 7:31.
At 8:10 I saw a booby at a distance flying south.
Probably not the same bird as last week’s black-and-white booby; this one was white-and-black.
Too far away to identify for sure, but based on the way it flew, it looked more like a masked/Nazca type than a red-footed type.
By 8:25 the heat had gotten too oppressive, even in the shade, and the heat shimmer too distorting, to make staying worthwhile.
Stan Walens, S.D.
Jul 11, 2018; 8:50 a.m.
Source: SanDiegoRegionBirding Latest Reports