Another San Diego pelagic trip

San Diego at sunset. October 4, 2014. Greg Gillson.

Last month I took a pelagic trip from San Diego. Last week I took another. I'll be sharing some bird photos from those trips over the next few posts.

The birds were nothing special on this trip. Murrelets and storm-petrels were all very distant (most flew away from the boat while still 500 feet away). No rarities.

The weather was warm, the sky blue, and seas calm. The photos accompanying this post shows you why I enjoy pelagic trips--even if the birds were just ordinary seabirds this day.

Common Dolphin

Pelagic trip aboard Grande. October 4, 2014.

Pilot Whale off San Diego. October 4, 2014. Greg Gillson.

Pilot Whale

California Flying Fish.

Striped Marlin.

I love boobies! Brown Booby on San Diego pelagic trip

Brown Booby. On a pelagic trip 3 miles off San Diego, California. September 21, 2014. Greg Gillson.

In 1934 Henry Miller wrote a book where he called a woman's breasts "boobies." Since then, that has become the first and primary meaning for that word in American English, sometimes with a vulgar connotation. However this meaning of the word has moved into mainstream usage. For instance, in 2000 the Keep-A-Breast Foundation coined the phrase: "I love boobies" to bring awareness to breast cancer.

Prior to that, however, a booby was the term for an awkward or stupid person. It is this meaning of the word that is the basis for naming a group of tropical seabirds. It seems that starving sailors in times past had no respect for birds with no natural fear of man. Thus, we have boobies, gooney birds (albatrosses), and the dodo. All these words mean foolish or stupid (a.k.a. "an easy dinner" or "it tastes like chicken").

Brown Boobies are found in tropical oceans all around the world (but with a gap in the central and eastern South Pacific). In North America they are found in the Caribbean and southern Atlantic States. The white head of this bird in the photos is unique to the male Brown Booby of the "Brewster's" race found primarily off West Mexico. Identifying the gender of Brown Boobies elsewhere in the world is a bit more difficult. Breeding males have blue facial skin at the base of the bill while females have greenish facial skin. In these photos you can make out the bluish hue of the facial skin around the eyes.

Brown Boobies began breeding on the Coronado Islands a few years ago. These islands are about 9 miles off Tijuana, Mexico, and 15 miles south of San Diego Bay. Brown Boobies and, recently, a few Blue-footed Boobies have become regular visitors off beaches near the Mexican border. I haven't actually gone to look for them there yet at the end of Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach.

There are 7 species of boobies and 3 closely related species of gannets in the world. I've seen Brown, Blue-footed, and Masked boobies. But I have a special affinity for brown boobies.

The first Brown Booby I ever saw was while leading a pelagic trip off Depoe Bay, Oregon in October 1998. This large dark bird was flying directly at the boat, making it difficult to see exactly what it was. But I knew it was big, perhaps a skua. As it approached quite near I finally could see the classic "pointed at both ends" look. Since this was the first record of a booby of any kind in Oregon--and I'd never seen a booby other than in my field guides--I wasn't really prepared, and couldn't remember the name immediately. According to a nearby passenger I shouted out a stammering "b-b-b-b-booby!" It took a while to identify the bird to species as it was a juvenile bird, very dark, similar to the bird in the photo below. It is always exciting to discover a first state record!

This immature Brown Booby off San Diego in September 2014 is actually paler
than the first one I identified off Depoe Bay, Oregon in October 1998.

A few years later, in October 2012 another Brown Booby was spotted and photographed from a pelagic trip I organized and led. This time the bird was an adult female and was, by then, a 5th state record for Oregon.

Besides my two Oregon sightings, I've seen Brown Boobies in Mexico a few times (including 90 individuals in the harbor at Mazatlan). But the three birds I saw last month (two photographed in this article) were my first for California.

Western Kingbird at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

Western Kingbird. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California. September 14, 2014. Greg Gillson.

Here's one more photo from my visit to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery last month. It appears to be a juvenile Western Kingbird with broad pale upper wing coverts and a little pale on the head.

Lesser Yellowlegs at San Luis Rey River Mouth

Lesser Yellowlegs. San Luis Rey River mouth, Oceanside, California. September 7, 2014. Greg Gillson.

The Lesser Yellowlegs has taken a population hit in the past 20 years. You'd think that nesting in the boreal forest of northern Canada they'd be secure, but evidently not. Logging, pesticides, and hunting on their wintering grounds in the Caribbean all take their toll.

The 1981 book by Garrett and Dunn: "Birds of Southern California: status and distribution" says that it was a fairly common fall migrant in southern California coastal estuaries. But this is no longer true. Even one bird, now, gets flagged as unusual when reported on eBird in San Diego County.

One other reason that they may be on the eBird rare bird list for the county is their common larger look-a-like relative, the Greater Yellowlegs, may be mistaken for them. If you are a bit uncertain on just how to tell Lesser Yellowlegs from Greater Yellowlegs, I wrote an identification article on this subject 4 years ago that shows an ID tip not found in most field guides.

There have been 1 to 6 birds reported most of the fall (perhaps many different birds over time?) at San Luis Rey River mouth. I saw them there at least twice. I believe I saw (and heard) one a third time, but the bird was much more distant than the one photographed above, and my photo of the other bird was not diagnostic.

Review: The Scarlet Kingfisher

The Scarlet Kingfisher: Discovery of a new species
August 2014
Robert Henry Benson

Genre: Fiction ("Birder murder mystery"?)

When Mr. Benson asked me to review his new novel I did let him know that I had never reviewed a fictional book before. In fact, I remember reading only two fictional books in the past 25 years--both science fiction. Now, wait; the protagonist in "The Scarlet Kingfisher" is a scientist discovering a new species, so this is science fiction, right? No? Well, I'll give it a try anyway. But be forewarned, I called David Sibley's 2014 update to his groundbreaking book on birds "unreadable." But that wasn't the material; it was the microscopic font size.

This fast-paced story is very engaging, and becomes more so as the story reaches its climax. The story begins with the protagonist--a biologist, Dr. Beach O'Neill--locked out of his field research area on a private ranch in southern Texas. Apparently, some ranch hand reported an improbable undescribed bird in southern Texas. Dr. O'Neill sneaks on to the property to reach his study area, but comes upon a dead body! Now he's the prime suspect in the murder! He has to evade the bad guys and the sheriff, repair his relationship with his girlfriend, save his career, and somehow clear his name! And all the while search for the improbable titular bird.

Written by a birder, Mr. Benson takes us on a realistic drive through the south Texas countryside. We see the geography, botany, and birds through his accurate descriptions of what is really there. Likewise, we get a realistic glimpse into academia, in this case Texas A&M University. There is also some history of Texas towns and people, but how much is true and how much is fiction? Nevertheless, it made it personally realistic to me, because I would pay the same exact attention to the plants and animals.

The fast-pace of the book necessitated shallow character development of many of the characters. I found the antagonists rather stereotyped and lacking in character development. The falconer/bird trapper was an unkempt individual with no redeeming qualities. The "muscle" killed without remorse. The bad guy was a shadowy egomaniac. On the other hand, O'Niell's girlfriend botanist and fellow professor at the university was almost "too good." But by the end of the story, as events were reaching a nail-biting and page-turning confrontation, none of that mattered. Good story-telling carried the day.

Though there are sixty-one chapters in the book, there are only 211 pages. Thus, the chapters average less than 3.5 pages each. Personally, I might have increased the descriptive elements of the story even further (landscape, birds and animals, character development). For instance, in places Texas or desert-specific vegetation is named, but not described. I am reminded of the "Ox-Bow Incident" where more than half the book is devoted to a 15 or 20 minute period building the suspense for the quick actions at the end of the book. The painfully long time to get to the action actually increased the tension of dread of what was inexorably coming. The "Scarlet Kingfisher," on the other hand, kept building tension by moving quickly, then just before climax, switching the story line to another character's perspective of the same time period.

There were some brief uncomfortably graphic descriptions in the killing of a couple birds and one man. The bad guys did some swearing. The sex scene... That was a sex scene? Bullfrog? Really?

An engrossing, fast-paced, bird-themed murder mystery adventure. I have never read anything like it before.

Ps. Marlene loved it!