Pt. La Jolla – distant black-and-white booby, June 14, 2018

I made a seawatch this morning from Pt. La Jolla just near the usual Bridge Club location.

A large number of Black-vented Shearwater there with several rafts of sitting birds and a large congregation over Common Dolphin about 1/2 mile north of the point.  I would estimate 3000 Black-vented Shearwater in total with solid line of movement north to south.  Also a handful of Sooty Shearwater investigating the dolphins.

About 8:15am I spotted a very distant white bodied booby flying south to north low over the water.  It banked a few times giving dorsal views and clearly white with black wing tips and trailing edge to wing.  I could not detect the tail color, or the extent of the black trailing edge on the inner wing, or really if it looked dark masked because of the distance.  I am assuming Masked/Nazca Booby given recent reports but honestly so distant I could not discount adult white morph Red-footed Booby.  It got close to some northbound Black-vented Shearwaters and did not seem as large as I expected but again these were very distant viewing conditions.

Anyways, something to continue looking out for locally!