[Posted by Chuck Almdale]

When the hot weather of summer arrives in SoCal, we often find sub-tropical seabirds coming north from Mexico: various boobies and frigatebirds seem to be showing up every year. We don’t think much anymore about Heermann’s Gull, Elegant Tern, Neotropic Cormorant, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Little Blue Heron and (not a seabird) Great-tailed Grackle. They’ve become or are becoming regular visitors or breeders.

But when an infrequent Magnificent Frigatebird does show up, it’s worth knowing it’s around and if you live coast-close, maybe wandering down to the shore to take a peek. The latest one (or two) reported:

San Diego: Sat 7/1/23 Noon Mariner’s Point in southwest Mission Bay; Immature MAFR harassed by gulls. Bird circled around for several minutes doing lazy evasive maneuvers and eventually drifted W/NW out over the ocean.
Link to ebird report & photos by Matt Sadowski

That’s a Western Gull, 58″ wingspan for comparison.

Long Beach: Sun 7/2/23 10:30-11:30 am Circling for an hour between Belmont Pier and Alamitos Bay jetty.

The Long Beach sighting didn’t comment on plumage/age, so it might be the same bird slowly cruising up the coast.

Attention Santa Monica & Malibu — Coming your way!
San Fernando Valley — not so likely.