ML126683811

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Very Rare. North American mega rarity outside of a small window in the late summer in deep water off of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Long-legged, fairly pale storm-petrel, with white underwings, gray back, and white underparts and face with a black face patch and cap. First bird was just off the starboard bow, and was behaving bizarrely (even for this species), continuously wheeling around and crashing into the same bit of water over and over again, before then breaking into its more typical water-walking/pogo stick-type flight style as it angled away from the boat. The second bird was about 30 minutes later, and very distant to our port side. Mixed with other storm-petrels. Seen briefly by myself and Mike Lanzone. Characteristics listed above ruled out the other three storm-petrel species present. We had been traveling continuously for 30 minutes since seeing the first WF, so we were confident this was a second bird. Water temperature was 76.4° F ASL: Sean Sime photos: DG photos:

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

800

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1864 pixels x 1251 pixels

Original file size

1.28 MB