One day, on a birding outing, we were staring at a common golden eye swimming in a river in Bristol, Tennessee. We checked Peterson’s Bird Guide to confirm that it was a rather unusual sight for that area. I asked our birding expert why the golden eye was in Bristol, and he dead-panned, “Because birds can’t read books.”

It’s the time of year when migration gives us some surprises, but Hungry Mother State Park has recently had an avian visitor that falls fully into the rare category: a brown booby.

When you visit All About Birds to read about brown boobies, you know right away it’s unlikely that we would ever see one in Marion, Virginia, because the first words of the description explain that these birds are “Found in tropical oceans around the world…” The overview goes on to explain that they might occasionally visit Florida or California. And on really rare occasions they might stray up to Canada or venture inland in the U.S.

Not only did this wayward bird visit the park, but it has been sticking around. It (we say “it” because the males and females pretty much look alike – so we don’t know the gender of our special guest) was first spotted around Sept. 21, 2022, and was seen as recently as Oct. 7, 2022. Tanya Hall, the park’s chief ranger for visitor experience, speculates that it’s sticking around because the fishing is good! “There are plenty of fish in the lake, and it doesn’t have other boobies to compete with.” She also believes it is an immature bird, so it may be hanging around to allow for a little more “growing up” time. 

In fact, one article said that a scarcity of food is one reason boobies are likely to wander out of their usual range. This one may have also been caught up in the shifting weather: that week featured rain, winds, and dramatic temperature shifts. So a little extra effort for good food may have put the bird in the wrong place at the wrong time. A perfect storm, you might say.

Meanwhile, Ranger Hall doesn’t think the brown booby will stick around much longer because, as we mentioned earlier, it usually hangs out in tropical oceans. “It may not like our winter weather.”

Check out the booby before it gets away! With a little luck, you can watch it diving for fish. And don’t miss those funky feet: boobies (there are several varieties, including the oft-referenced blue-footed booby) have four toes connected by webbing (ducks have three connected toes). This is simply not a bird we’re likely to see again at Hungry Mother State Park!