The latest potential addition to the British List occurred in mid-May 2007, when a Masked Booby was reported off St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight, on 19/5. Amazingly, what was presumably the same bird was belatedly reported from the region of the Channel Light Vessel two days earlier. Could this also be the same bird seen on the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry in September 2003? Probably not - the Bilbao bird was reported as a sub-adult whereas the recent records have been said to have involved a "juvenile" or an "immature". How many of them are there in European waters? The chances of this bird becoming twitchable seem fairly remote, but stranger things have happened...

BUBO Listing has not yet added Masked Booby as a "provisional" addition to any authorities because we tend to reserve this for species where there appears to be absolutely no question of the identity of the bird. At time of writing, there are not sufficient facts in the public domain for us to make this assessment, although by all accounts the bird was seen by experienced observers. However, if any BUBO Listers have been lucky enough to have seen the bird then get in touch and let us know.

Stop press: presumably the same bird was reported off Porthgwarra, Cornwall, on 25th May. Going the wrong way, unless it's off to Grassholm...