Most of the day was spent on the sand in Cocoa Beach off South Atlantic Ave. post Thanksgiving. The Magnificent Frigatebird showed up early, and several were seen, which is proving that pelagics are not only near land during breeding season.
The early birds were the gulls, terns, pelicans, Osprey, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, and Willets, among several others.
When the sun started cresting toward the west, it brought out the pelagics. The Northern Gannet was seen on the horizon, and I believe this photo was nearly a good half mile off. The Black Scoters were also all day birds, but these sea ducks wandered closer as time marched on. I don't think that they would have come any closer.
It was a wonderful final day, but unfortunately all good things come to an end. But see the other two adventures here:
Recently a visitor in Oklahoma over the past of couple of days, the Magnificent Frigatebird is a seabird that can stray or be a part of skip or possibly drift migration. Drift occurs due to storms which just occurred over the past week or thereabouts due to hurricanes and other tropical storms, however, that usually involves several birds, not singles, such as this sighting.
Another related factor regarding migratory events is called reverse migration, which usually happens with young birds. This occurs with individuals in isolated sightings, such as the frigatebird, which had seen twice and could very remotely be the same individual that was at Lake Carl Blackwell in June. Since so much time had elapsed between the sightings, the probability that this was the same bird is doubtful.
Obviously, these are remarkable observations when it comes to seabirds, yet they would be most common, even though a rare occurrence. Not only have we seen Magnificent Frigatebirds twice over tropical weather systems, there has also been a Brown Booby that ventured here right around the same period of another weather event.
The Magnificent Frigatebird will occur between northern Mexico and Ecuador on the Pacific coast, as well as between Florida and southern Brazil on Atlantic coastal waters.
Being the species that it is, the Magnificent Frigatebird usually takes flying fish which are easy to obtain when in flight, and indulges in kleptoparasitism with other birds. It will force other species to physically regurgitate a meal by throwing them off balance with a spinning motion or pecking at their heads, and thus forcing them to throw up the contents of their stomach through gravity. They will them grab the meal before it hits water.
Magnificent Frigatebird Juvenile
copyright, Cody L. Barnes
Breeding colonially in mangroves in both the Caribbean and Florida, as well as on the Pacific coast side of the Americas between Mexico and Ecuador, these seabirds have also been noted as vagrants in British Columbia and Europe.
As some seabirds do, the frigatebird will rely on updrafts to migrate, spending day and night on the wing, and it is silent while in flight.
When it is time for Pacific Ocean weather systems, it will be the best to also watch those events. Since we are in the central part of the country, there's no telling what else could turn up in Oklahoma, like perhaps, the Laysan Albatross.
Also See Story On Brown Booby Seen Recently in Oklahoma:
