New Work: Red-Footed Booby in Port Townsend
Every so often a truly rare bird is found. About an hour from here in Port Townsend, An Immature Red-Footed booby, which should be out in the tropical ocean around Hawaii, showed up, and evidently liked what he found, so he’s stuck around. He’s often found near the Port Townsend Marine Science center hanging out on one of the pilings.
When the bird first arrived I went out to see it, and it was sleeping, and I never pulled out the camera. I’ve gone out twice since then, once the bird was somewhere else, but most recently, I got a solid 20 minutes watching and photographing it before it decided to head out. It spent a fair bit of time flexing and stretching its wings, so it’s leaving didn’t surprise me, but of course, it flew away from me, so no flight shots.
As a birder, or course, having this bird around allows me to say “Hey, I’m going out to chase boobies” to Laurie with a straight face. Because hey, why not?
I’ve been exploring Jefferson County a bit more as we’re starting to move towards fall, and here are my pictures of the Booby, as well as a few other from these recent trips.
