Tuesday 5 July 2011

French BOOBY still present but is it moribund?

The adult RED-FOOTED BOOBY is still on Sainte-Croix lake in S France today Monday 4 July. The lake is 80 km NE of Marseille and 90 km NW of Nice, the two closest international airports. This morning the bird was sitting on a pedalo / paddleboat next to the entrance of the Verdon gorges, around 43.801 / 6.247, so probably visible from the bridge over the Verdon on the road D957 between Moustiers-Sainte-Marie and Les Salles-sur-Verdon.

One additional piece of info: the bird is feeding alone BUT is said to be so tame that it was possible to catch it by hand (despite being in good physical condition apparently). What this means, I have no idea. The species is reputedly very tame on the breeding grounds and the last year's Spanish bird was certainly very tame also, so whether this excludes a natural origin or not, we don't know. The bird is unringed but obviously should be searched for PIT tags (which is planned for the near future) (per Pierre Crochet)

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