Brown Booby - 29th September 2024

The day started at 7 am, meeting up with Gabriel Säll and Robert Lager at Ottenby nature reserve for five hours of vismig and a wander around the forest.  We managed 45 species from Södra lundspetsen including; one Black Kite, two Rough-legged Buzzards, Woodlark, 600 Common Crane, one Osprey, one Hen Harrier, five White-tailed Eagles, one Yellow-browed Warbler, eight Hawfinch, a Fieldfare, 250 Goldcrest, a Merlin and 2000 Siskin.

At 3pm we managed to see the Pectoral Sandpiper in pools along the road to the lighthouse.

At 4.45pm a call came over the radio that there was a Brown Booby at Segerstad Fyr, 25 minutes drive up the peninsula.  We bundled into Robert's car and were on our way.  By the time we arrived, there were already fifty plus birders.  We rushed to the shore where it had been feeding for the past thirty minutes, to see it begin to fly away South.  Photos were grabbed and it was gone!

But that wasn't the last sighting, the warden of Ottenby Fågelstation witnessed it getting attacked band grabbed by a White-tailed Eagle.  But it managed to escape, after which it flew directly out to sea.  Several days later, it was spotted off Skägen in Denmark with slight damage to some feathers from the encounter.

On a side note, I am almost certain I saw a Brown Booby when departing Dover a month or so before.  I peered over the many passengers heads to try and see out but I couldn't see the bird again.  One had been reported from the cliffs that morning so I suspect it is the same bird I saw.  There's nothing quite liked one in European waters after all.

Photo by Gabriel Säll

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