Oklahoma Vagrants: Lesser Black-backed Gull

This rare but increasing winter resident from Europe tends to come to Oklahoma on practically a yearly basis.  First noticed in 2008 at Boomer Lake Park in Stillwater, this gull comes to Oklahoma frequently in winter, as well as other parts of the state, including Lake Hefner, Lake Yahola, Keystone Dam, and other areas including the Panhandle.  It usually mixes in among the Ring-billed and Herring Gulls, usually noted for its larger size, smudged dark spot around the eye, and pale yellow juvenile legs.

They are usually found all over the Atlantic coast in winter, then gradually lessen as they get to inland areas of the US.  It looks similar to the Herring Gull, but is a little smaller and the bill shape also helps to give away its identity.

                                                          Lesser Black-backed Gull
                                                           Boomer Lake Park, 2016

It is suspected that these birds come from Greenland or Iceland, where the latter has had older colonies.  As of 2007, two different birds paired with two Herring Gulls to become nesting birds in the States, which was in Maine and Alaska.  It first arrived in the US in 1934.

The call is a deeper laugh than the Herring Gull. which also helps to draw attention to it.  Young birds have scaly dark brown feathers with black primaries, a neat pattern on the wings, and takes four years to mature.  They are also omnivores, like most other gulls, and will join other species at a local dump, or eat invertebrates and fish at bodies of water.  They are also kleptoparasites.

Oklahoma Vagrants: South Polar Skua

 

Rare from Antarctic nesting grounds, a few of these birds can rarely pass on either of our open oceans from May through October.  They practice kleptoparasitism, like many open water birds and eat fish on the open water.

Once known as MacCormick's skua, this predatory large seabird nests off the edges of Antarctica, hence the name.  Having a very large migratory range, some may winter as far north as Greenland.

Large birds to many of us, they are actually small in comparison to skuas in general.  They have both light- and dark morph birds, where the light subspecies contrasts beautifully with a dark upperside.  The dark adult shows a pale crescent and nape with uniform dark upperparts.

During the second week of August 2013, this territorial bird visited the dual county area of Lake Overholser, both Canadian and Oklahoma Counties, where it sustained itself on eight Cattle Egrets, a far cry from the normal fish diet.  Brian Marra obtained a beautiful photo of the skua attacking a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron on 8 August, which follows:


  

                    copyright, Brian Marra 2013

Thusly, Mr. Marra was a witness of some very rare natural history observed by few humans.  This is the only eBird sighting in Oklahoma at this time.  Oddly enough, several Cattle Egrets made it to the Goose Island area of Boomer Lake in Stillwater a short time after the skua arrived in Oklahoma.

This stocky, gull-like bird has been observed at the South Pole.  A bird to be reckoned with during breeding season, it has flown directly at a person's head in order to protect its nest.  One photographer in 1911, said that he was nearly blinded by one of the species' members.

Skuas begin nesting when six or seven years of age, and those short summers have their toll on the process.  Even though the female lays two eggs, the older chick will eat the younger or drive it away and it dies.  If the older chick survives, it battled the effects of the wind successfully.

The Adelie Penguin youngster can also be a formidable foe, as those flippers are perfect for apprehending a meal, which would be the well-feathered baby skua.  It is all due to survival of the fittest in that fierce climate.  The skua brings those survival instincts into adulthood, and it must eat.

Conversely, this skua enjoys the eggs of penguins, but the Brown Skua usually eats them first.

The species is normally a pelagic bird and only visits land while breeding.

 

Birds of the Sea: Brown Booby

The Brown Booby is a sexually dimorphic seabird usually observed near the Dry Tortugas of Florida, where it perches on navigational markers or in trees.

It is suspected that it once nested in the Florida Keys, but only nests in Hawaii presently in the US.  It will sometimes wander into inland areas of the southwest from western Mexico, namely around the Colorado River or the Salton Sea.

Similar to the Northern Gannet, it will plunge headfirst into the water while diving at an angle.  It practices kleptoparasitism and will pursue flying fish from the air.

The thick cone-shaped bill is to be reckoned with if one is in the opportunity to rehabilitate this bird, as it can deliver a vicious bite that will assuredly draw blood.  It will also do the same with other birds that have the audacity to be near it while fishing, for it will peck at them until they release their quarry.

A juvenile Brown Booby visited Oklahoma on August 16, 2018 on the property of the Dolese Sandpit in Dover.  This photo was obtained by workers at that location.  A second report of most likely the same bird was seen a day later in Bristow, OK.  It is believed to have arrived in the area under storm conditions as a reverse migrant, which will happen to single, usually inexperienced migrants.




                   Juvenile Brown Booby
                 Dolese Sand Pit, Dover OK

Another strong flier like the Magnificent Frigatebird, it is also silent, unless on the breeding grounds, and the only time they are on dry land is for purposes of reproduction.

These birds are extremely graceful fliers, but they are the most clumsy when it comes to takeoffs and landings.  They must use strong winds and high perches as an assist.

Also See Today's Report on the Magnificent Frigatebird:

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2018/09/birds-of-sea-magnificent-frigatebird.html

Birds of the Sea: Magnificent Frigatebird

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:

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2018/09/birds-of-sea-brown-booby.html