Blue-footed Booby, one of five present at Lake Skinner County Park, Riverside, CA. Photograph by Dave Furseth.
Over the past week Blue-footed Boobies have been reported with increasing frequency from many places along the coast of southern California. As many as seven birds are at the Playa del Rey–Breakwater, and at least one bird has made it as far north as the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse. Birders on the Pacific Coast should be on high alert for this species. Even more remarkable is the number of birds being seen at inland lakes. From southeast Arizona to Los Angeles and Riverside Counties, birders have turned up wayward Blue-footed Boobies. Keep this species on your radar when birding any body of water in the Southwest, and make sure to enter all your observations into eBird!
Check out the eBird range map for the latest observations.
Blue-footed Booby invasion into California as of 15 September 2013.
eBird is an excellent tool for gathering and synthesizing information about these kinds of large-scale avian events. Please be sure to spread the word that eBird is hoping to document as many of these sightings as possible.