ML52608211

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

At this time it looked like a cat trying very hard to cough up a hairball - I caught this shot with its tongue protruding in the process.

Observation details

This is the bird reported the previous day, continuing today. It hung out mostly on the two rusty whitish round towers, on a ledge near the top, occasionally flying out and back again. It has the malar stripe, black "wing pits" and the dark underwing coverts. I watched as it perched on the ledges of the towers, occasionally leapt into flight and made a circuit to the nearby office buildings and back, finding another perch near the one it left. It seemed to alternate towers on each return. While perched it would sit and look around, staring at the tower its face was against or swiveling its head around to look over its shoulders. Several times it preened itself. At one point it looked like a cat trying to cough up a hairball, and in my photos I see it even got to the point of sticking out its tongue in the process - one photo below shows that. And at one point it took a stroll along the ledge. It stayed around there until around 3:45, when it flew in the direction of the river, becoming a tiny speck before disappearing, at which point we got up and went around to the river side of the plant to look for it. It stayed gone for at least 15 minutes before reappearing, but this time it was more active, landing only briefly but otherwise kiting high above the building and making flight forays until it disappeared finally in a long angled dive around 4:40. We waited about 10 minutes to see if it would return, but then gave up and left. I posted composite photos on Flickr showing multiple angles of the bird in flight, and the bird walking along the ledge. In flight: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zxgirl/33310152250 On the ledge: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zxgirl/33310187730/

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM +1.4x III

ISO

2000

Focal length

560 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

900 pixels x 600 pixels

Original file size

385.83 KB