Preliminary Sept 27 – 29, 2023 Trip Report

by Garett Hodne | Oct 5, 2023

Second 48-Hour TX Pelagic Report Sept 27 – 29, 2023.

Prior to today probably fewer than a dozen birders have this bird on their Texas List. Today 29 very lucky birders added RED-FOOTED BOOBY to their TX and Life Lists. We made TX Pelagic history with the first RFBO for any TX Pelagic ever. It was one of my top four needed birds for a Texas pelagic. The bird circled the boat for at least 15 minutes while it dove after flying fish. It was accompanied by a Brown Booby for a few minutes and chased by a Pomarine Jaeger for a few minutes too. Thousands of photos taken.
A full report to be posted soon.

PELAGIC SEABIRDS: 11 SPECIES – TIES THE RECORD and 58 individual birds

1. Red-necked Phalarope – 1
2. Pomarine Jaeger – 1
3. Sabine’s Gull – 1
4. Bridled Tern – 1
5. Band-rumped Storm-Petrel – 1
6. Cory’s Shearwater – 11
7. Manx Shearwater – 1
8. Audubon’s Shearwater – 6
9. Magnificent Frigatebird – 21
10. Red-footed Booby – 1
11. Brown Booby – 14

Nearshore Seabirds

1. Laughing Gull -150
2. Black Tern – 15
3. Common Tern – 1
4. Royal Tern – 1
5. Brown Pelican – 10

Landbird Migrants

1. Blue-winged Teal – 15
2. White-winged Dove – 2
3. Mourning Dove -1
4. Ruby-throated Hummingbird – 1
5. Little Blue Heron – 2
6. Western Cattle Egret – 4
7. Great Egret – 15
8. Great Blue Heron – 4
9. Peregrine Falcon – 2
10. Eastern Wood-Pewee – 1
11. Barn Swallow -3

Additional taxa

1. booby sp. – 1
2. Cliff/Cave Swallow – 1
3. new world warbler sp. – 2
4. passerine sp. – 3
5. bird sp. – 2

Here is a map of the trip track (purple) as recorded by my GPS.

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