ML119258011

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - X

Tags

No bird; Watermark

Media notes

Pomarine Jaeger

Observation details

When I heard about the Jaeger observed on Sunday afternoon, 14 Oct 2018, by Terry McNeely and other Big Sit attendees, and I looked at the photos on the Big Sit checklist and enhanced them as best I could to see the bill and tail, I decided to go up early on Monday and see if I could find it. The bill, tail extensions and white patches seemed like a Pomarine, but l couldn't see the wings in the photos at all. So I decided if the bird did make an appearance I would spend my time with binoculars and spotting scope looking in detail at the upper and lower wing surface and what ever else I had time to see. I sketched the wings as I saw them in flight as the bird flew at 8:55 am from east to west across in front of the tower about 100 yards out on the lake. It was about 30 feet above the lake surface and began to descend as it approached the gulls and coot near the dam. If flew about two feet above the water through the gulls and coot and paralleled the dam levee to the north end and then continued in a clockwise direction all the way around the back (north edge) and out of sight to the east. As it flew through the gulls and coot it appeared to be checking for full crops but didn't stop to grab any of the birds. It appeared to be at least twice as long as the coots, the wings appeared to be broad based and the body was relatively deep chested. I didn't look for the bill or tail feathers but have added them in to my sketches based on what I saw in the photos taken during the three visits from the Pomarine Jaeger and its attacks on gulls and when it sat on the water,, as seen by Big Sitters on 14 Oct. Aside from my general comments about size relative to birds it was near, I spent most of my time looking for details in the upper wing and lower wing surfaces. The upper wing had 5-7 white primary shafts and a very noticeable white base to the primaries. The lower surface of the wing clearly had a large white patch with white shaft rays on the primaries and the greater coverts had a very large white patch with a few rays of white, with a narrow dark band between the primaries and greater coverts of the under-wing lining. I believe that the similar parasitic jaeger has a much narrower wing base and and doesn't show a second white patch on the under-wing greater coverts. Again, I didn't notice the bill or tail as I was focused on the size, shape and pattern of light and dark the whole time when it was close for about 45 seconds. I watched it in the scope for about 3 minutes as it made its clockwise circuit of the lake shore. I waited about 4 hours; all the gulls moved to the very east end of the lake and I never saw the jaeger again. I had camera and scope with cell phone all ready to go on the second coming of the jaeger, which didn't happen.

Technical information

Model

iPhone 7

Lens

iPhone 7 back camera 3.99mm f/1.8

ISO

20

Focal length

4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/1.8

Shutter speed

1/165 sec

Dimensions

800 pixels x 706 pixels

Original file size

176.48 KB