Look what I found at the beach yesterday....

One of my family art and nature walks takes place every week at Corporation Beach in Dennis. It is a great place for both families and exploring tidal pools and even though yesterday was a cloudy day the tide was almost out and we had a great group.

There were tons of hermit crabs but also lots of minnows and small crabs of various descriptions so we were all looking in the water as we walked along.

There are always cormorants hanging out on the big jetty here so at first glance we didn't pay too much attention to this bird on the rocks while we were looking for fish and crabs. As we headed back down the side of the jetty, however, the bird looked up....

and I knew this wasn't any cormorant. Check out that heavy bluish bill and those big yellow feet. I had read that people had seen a brown booby, a real stranger to our area, in the last week or so and my thoughts immediately jumped to thinking this may be that bird. I took lots of pictures and sent a few to Mark Faherty at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and it wasn't long before other birders came along to confirm the ID.

These poses look just like the pictures in the Sibley bird book of the juvenile brown booby, a bird much more likely to be seen in the Caribbean than in New England. The other bird seen recently was actually seen in Maine and looked to be an older bird than this. Perhaps they got blown up this way in one of the recent storms we had.

You can learn more about the brown booby from this site and yes, this bird has a funny name. I do know this bird stayed at the beach until at least dusk and it may still be there this morning. If you do not have a Dennis sticker you will have to pay to park at the beach.