Ohio Strikes again!! Parasitic Jaeger #625

 

Fresh off my buzz from the first ever Brown Booby in Ohio, I was down in South Carolina visiting my aunt. We spent the weekend birding and I got to see/hear my second chance lifer Red-cockaded Woodpecker!!  Well, the FB Birding Ohio page, showed a picture from a local birder, who saw a Jaeger at an inland reservoir in southern Ohio.  Now this was quite unique, because again here was another ocean/coastal bird stuck in Ohio and not on Lake Erie.  At first it was ID'd as a Pomarine Jaeger, which made sense.  Last year, October 2019, a full size Pomarine showed up in Mansfield, so what the heck? Anything is possible??  But after further pictures and better identification from birders . . . it turns out to be a  . . . .

Parasitic Jaeger

Lifer #625

Not my pictures

Parasitic Jaegers, known as arctic skuas in Europe, are fast-flying relatives of gulls with a piratical lifestyle. They breed on the Arctic tundra, where they prey mainly on birds and their eggs. They spend the rest of the year on the open ocean, harrying other seabirds and sometimes attacking in groups, until they give up their catch

Harveysburg Rd.

      Typically shows white shafts on 4–6 outermost wing feathers, more than Long-tailed, but fewer than Pomarine.

       

Jaeger range

Wow!! Can you believe it!! I was just saying how 2020 Covid-19 year was hard to get life birds. I only had 2 new birds for the year, when BOOM, Ohio comes calling with Brown Booby and Parasitic Jaeger!!  I have now seen all 3 Jaeger species in Ohio.  Long-tailed lifer in 2017, Pomarine in 2019 and Parasitic lifer in 2020.

Gambill family history:

Buddy saw all 3 Jaegers in 1980!!! Attu Island and Nome, Alaska

Brown Booby in Ohio!! #624

 I will never forget when I got that text, "Brown Booby in Summit county"  Wait? What?  That doesn't make sense, and the recent hurricanes have not swept thru Ohio, so it's not a storm bird pushed up here.  

Never been here

BOOM!! In flight when I arrived

Brown Booby, juvenile 

Lifer #624 & no boat trip!

Found in tropical oceans around the world, the Brown Booby is a dashing seabird—both in plumage, a natty brown-and-white (with bright yellow feet) and in flight style, which involves swift aerial maneuvers and deft dives. Brown Boobies do not nest on the United States mainland but often visit waters off Florida or California. They occasionally stray as far north as Canada, and sometimes well inland. Like most seabirds that nest on islands, Brown Boobies are very vulnerable to introduced predators such as rats, mice, and cats.

Way out of range

Amish Homeboys 

Family History w Brown Booby

Buddy: May 1, 1982  Rebloca Shoals, FL  on way to Dry Tortugas, FL also saw Masked Booby & Brown Noddy

Red & Louise: 1983 & 2001  no location noted, probably Dry Tortugas also 

Sad ending, 10 days later, R.I.P Brown Booby, probably Great Horned Owl ate it to death

Next up:  Another OHIO Lifer?!?!