Close Encounter of the "RARE" Kind?

TODAY is our 51st wedding anniversary!!!

Over the last two months, since mid-March, I've been doing a bit of research now and then, off and on, since I saw this bird in ARK [a facility in Port A for injured bird rehab]. I do know it's a booby, but I think it's NOT a brown booby. I've read and searched numerous sites that tell me the brown booby [both male, female AND immature] has nearly identical colors and markings. And that includes YELLOW feet. This booby has speckling on the head and a bit of the throat [brown booby doesn't] and blue-gray feet!!! I was confused. Especially since I had it in my head when I saw it...blue footed. But, the young college student that was feeding the caged birds, said she thought it was a brown. So, I kept her words in mind as I drove home, and then brought out the laptop and my books. Now, watching PBS Nature programs, I have seen the Blue Footed from the Pacific side of our country. Their feet are nearly turquoise. But, upon further reading, the Blue Footed Booby from the Galapogos Islands "blue" is much grayer in hue [and Peruvian?]. So...perhaps my first assumption is correct. I know for sure it's not a brown, nor a red footed...I think blue footed is all that is left to conclude the ID. What do you think?

Read more...here



BOOBY [BLUE FOOTED?]
photos taken:  Port Aransas, Texas
habitat map: Booby
[according to this map link...two have been seen/recorded/confirmed in Texas]

While I am in my March bird photo folder, I picked a few and added ones to share from that month...


GOLDEN FRONTED WOODPECKER [notice its tongue]

photo taken:  West Guth Park
habitat map:  Woodpecker


SNOWY PLOVER
photo taken:  Bird Basin, PINS
habitat map:  Plover


WILSON'S PLOVER
photo taken:  PINS [Padre Island National Seashore]
habitat map:  Plover


AMERICAN AVOCET [breeding colors]
photos taken:  Leonabelle Birding Center
habitat map:  Avocet


WHIMBREL
photo taken:  Packery Channel Park [behind the park in the mudflats]
habitat map:  Whimbrel




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