The summer tourist season for Massachusetts is in full swing, drawing in visitors of all shapes and sizes, not to mention species.

An American Flamingo, associated with decidedly warmer climes than Massachusetts, made a number of bird watchers very happy, and a blue whale literally made a splash off the coast of Gloucester.

Though there have been no more unusual whale sightings since then, user-reported bird watching database Ebird exploded once again on Monday with sightings of a Brown Booby in South Boston.

For non-birders, a Brown Booby is a tropical bird. The fact that it’s common in the Carribean should give most people an idea of why it would be so surprising to find it in New England.

How long has it been here?

The first report of the Brown Booby on ebird was posted Saturday, July 13 a little after 9 a.m., by user Dan O’Brien, but the actual first sighting is credited to one Laura Markley the day before in a number of notes. Meaning the animal has been in the area for at least six days now.

O’Brien wrote that the bird was perched at the end of the wooden piling when he arrived, right as it began to rain. “When the rain started to let up it joined the feeding frenzy of gulls and terns. Saw it plunge diving a few times!” he said in the details section.

Plunge diving is a distinctive behavior used by a number of fishing bird species, diving from the air to the water for fish. Unlike other fishing birds, brown boobys perform relatively shallow dives of about two meters. They are also known to steal food from other birds, known as klepto-parasitism.

O’Brien speculated that the steady southern winds over the last week, and especially Wednesday through Friday, may have brought a few southern birds north, explaining why the bird was so far out of its normal territory.

Where is the brown booby usually seen?

This species breeds on islands and coasts in the pantropical (tropics in the eastern and western hemispheres) areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, often on islands in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. They can also be seen on islands in the Pacific and Indian ocean and even the northern coast of Australia. A wide range but all having one thing in common – south.

Massachusetts state lawmakers on Wednesday filed joint legislation to amend state gun laws by cracking down on “ghost guns,” expanding the state’s red flag law and limiting dangerous individuals’ access to firearms.

The new bill, a compromise between the pending State House and State Senate bills, is likely to be approved by both chambers in a vote tomorrow. After that, it will appear on Democratic Governor Maura Healy’s desk to be signed into law.

The initial impetus for the legislation was the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, a case that expanded gun rights. The majority ruling in the case stated that both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a gun for self-defense outside the home.

A joint collaboration between Massachusetts’ House and Senate was led by State Representative Michael Day and State Senator Cynthia Creem.

According to NBC Boston, Day and Creem said in a joint statement that the bill “delivers meaningfully on our promise to align our statutes with the challenges gun violence poses to our communities today and incorporates the perspectives of firearm owners, law enforcement, community leaders and those impacted directly by gun violence.”

Newsweek reached out to Day and Creem for comment via email on Wednesday.

The proposed bill is hard on “ghost guns,” which are largely untraceable, privately made firearms from different non-serialized and often mixed and matched parts. These weapons pose a significant safety concern, with nearly 38,000 ghost guns recovered since 2017, although that number is likely an underestimate given their untraceable nature.

A summary of the legislation obtained by NBC shows that the bill would require all firearms to be serialized and would impose new penalties for the possession, creation and transfer of the so-called “ghost guns.”

House Speaker Ronald Marino issued a statement ahead of Thursday’s vote, saying: “While the Commonwealth’s existing gun laws have proven to be effective in preventing gun violence compared to other states, relative success is never a cause for complacency.”

Newsweek reached out to Mariano for comment via email on Wednesday. Newsweek also reached out to Senate President Karen Spilka for comment via email on Wednesday.

Additionally, the bill is set to expand the state’s red flag law by authorizing health care professionals and others to petition a court to suspend an individual’s right to firearm possession.

The legislation also forbids carrying firearms in public spaces like government buildings, polling places and schools, with exemptions for law enforcement members. It would also require people applying for a firearm license to pass a basic safety exam and live fire training.

PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 08: Spectators attend the Olympic Games handover ceremony on August 8, 2021 in Paris, France. On August 8, during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, will officially receive the Olympic flag for the handover ceremony to mark Paris 2024 Olympic Games (July 26-August 11) and Paralympics (August 28-September 8). (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Getty Images)