In an extraordinary record, a Red-footed Booby was last week photographed on a boat along the Dorset coast, marking only the third record for Britain.
Finders Jane and Vince Jenkins were out diving on Monday 24 June at Worbarrow Bay, just east of Lulworth Cove, when an unusual seabird landed on their boat.
Red-footed Booby, Worbarrow, Dorset (Vince Jenkins).
Diving surprise
Vince Jenkins takes up the story: "We were diving a small wreck site of the bow of the Black Hawk, a World War II liberty ship, some c 800m offshore in Worbarrow Bay. The wreck is full of life, and since we like taking underwater pictures, that's why we visit it. We dive it regularly.
"On the evening of 24 June at 7 pm, we were the only ones on the water within several miles. I had dived before my wife, and Jane had just surfaced from her dive. I moved to the port side to take items of dive kit from her while she was still in the water.
"I had just got her tank on board when she pointed to a bird sitting on the consul screen. It must have just landed while I was looking in the opposite direction.
"As you can imagine, we just froze, as it was so close! I leant across and grabbed Jane's underwater camera. We stayed that way for maybe five minutes with Jane still in the water.
Fifty-minute encounter
"The bird seemed unperturbed, so Jane climbed on board. We sat and watched it preening for around 15 minutes. We started collecting our equipment as we had to get back to Kimmeridge to recover the boat as the slipway gate is locked in the evening.
"The booby continued with us for a while and it was only when we were halfway back on our return, and doing around 20 knots, that it decided to leave and flew back west towards Worbarrow. It must have been us with for around 50 minutes in total.
"We have seen Blue-footed Boobies before when diving in the tropics, most notably off Socorro Island (250 km out into the Pacific from Mexico), but we did not know of this bird's identity until we showed the photos a few days later to a birding friend who lives in our village."
Photos subsequently emerged that showed the same Red-footed Booby sat on the sea off Portland Bill earlier in the afternoon of 24th.
Incredible scenes in Worbarrow Bay on Monday! (with thanks to Vince Jenkins) pic.twitter.com/SbGWLBtNLl
— Dorset Bird Club (@DorsetBirdClub) June 28, 2024
Red-footed Booby, Worbarrow, Dorset (Vince Jenkins).
Red-footed Booby in Britain
Jane and Vince Jenkins's extraordinary encounter looks set to become the third British record and follows hot on the heels of last year's long-staying immature on Bishop Rock, Isles of Scilly, from 7 August-22 October, which promoted a large-scale twitch. The first occurrence for Britain involved an exhausted female found on the beach near Hastings, East Sussex, on 2 September 2016. It was taken into care before being transported to the Cayman Islands, where it died in quarantine before release.
Additional mainland European records involve birds in France (three), Italy, Portugal and Spain (five, plus a further four in the Canary Islands). The first of these – an immature at Málaga, Spain – occurred as recently as August 2010.
Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in extralimital records of Red-footed Booby in Europe. The species was only documented breeding in the Western Palearctic as recently as 2023. Warming seas as a result of climate change are undoubtedly the leading cause behind the now-regular appearance of tropical Sula species in British waters, with all British records of Red-footed Booby (three) and Brown Booby (18) all occurring within the last eight years.
Red-footed Booby, Worbarrow, Dorset (Jane Jenkins).
