Date: 8/23/26 12:23 pm From: Stan Walens via groups.io <stan.walens...> Subject: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] Blue-footed booby, La Jolla, August 22
Summary: An adult blue-footed booby flew over the Dan McKinney YMCA near Cliffridge Park in La Jolla yesterday at 5:25 pm.
Background:
While all the good birders were out on the water yesterday on the pelagic trip, I was in the water at the pool at the Dan McKinney YMCA. For the past 22+ years, I have done about 5 hours/week of water aerobics in the Y’s outdoor pools, in a bootless attempt to keep my body from terminal deliquescence. Water aerobics is excruciatingly dull, but I get to spend those tedious hours staring at the skies, watching birds take advantage of the thermals produced by the landscape and the surrounding slopes. The Y is about 1 mile due east of La Jolla Shores, at the top of the southern edge of La Jolla Mesa, and is surrounded by athletic fields that provide a good platform for thermals. Mostly I watch Western gulls heading from the ocean to their favored feeding grounds at the various fast-food restaurants in the shopping centers just to the east, and back again. Plus it is always fun to watch the ravens playing in the air currents. There are hawks and vultures and other soaring birds using the thermals. [Also, there has been a really nice flock of red-masked parakeets at the Y for the past several weeks.]
Over the 5000-some hours I have stared at the sky there, I have seen a handful of ocean birds take advantage of the uplift, including 2 Cocos boobies, 1 red-footed booby, 1 masked booby and 2 frigatebirds [one magnificent, 1 unidentified]. So that’s an average of 1 seabird every 850 hours or so, or every 3+ years.
Yesterday’s blue-footed booby was a full adult. All dark on top except for whitish head, lower back and part of the tail. Extensively dark underwings on the primaries and secondaries.
If any of the boobies photographed on yesterday’s pelagic trip tour out to be masked, that means all 5 expected species of boobies are currently present in San Diego waters.
Stan Walens, San Diego
August 23, 2026; 10:00 a.m.
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