ML128324281

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

It was overcast and well past sunset when we first saw the Brant among the many Cackling Geese. It was near the extreme west end of a very large flock of Cackling geese and only an estimated 100 m east of where the grassland ends at South Slough Pond. It was about 40 m from the road which allowed us to see it fairly well in spite of the poor lighting conditions. The flock was actively feeding so heads were down most of the time, but the Brant was easy to pick out due to its darker plumage overall, completely black head and breast, bold white banding on the black neck, and the contrasting white feathering on the sides. I was able to take a few very poor photos with a "point-and-shoot" digital camera. They are badly blurred due to the low light conditons, but one is included one here because it indicates that this bird is very likely a different individual than the Brant seen at Basket Slough NWR a few weeks ago on November 8, 2013. In the eBird checklist photos that bird is seen to lack any prominent white neck banding, in contrast to this bird's bold white neck markings. The Nov. 8 bird also showed rather dark sides with very little whitish at all, while this bird shows much white coloring in the sides, somewhat emphasized by the rather high contrast in the low-light photo (slightly cropped but otherwise unmodified).

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

ISO

1600

Focal length

96 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/8 sec

Dimensions

2738 pixels x 2054 pixels

Original file size

1.2 MB