ML128324971

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

At 9:22 AM a flock of 16 Band-tailed Pigeons flew by as I was birding from the roadside. They were flying southwest (up the canyon) when they suddenly turned sharply left and landed in trees on the south side of the creek about 0.25 miles beyond my location. I drove up to opposite their location and easily relocated them. They flew again in another couple of minutes and it became apparent that they had joined another flock that was already in the trees because a total of about 80 birds took off, circled once, continued a short distance up the canyon, and landed again. Almost immediately they took off again, circled several times, and flew another 0.1 mile farther up the canyon before landing again. Apparently they had joined with yet a third group of birds as this time I counted 110 in the flock, quickly counting again, just to be sure, as they circled over the canyon. As I approached their new location, part of the flock flew down to the oaks near the pond at the Walkabout Ranch and stayed their long enough to photograph them from a distance. They were strongly backlit and 110 yards away (measured) so the photos are only good enough to confirm their identity. Much of the flock took off again, circling before they headed up to the head of the canyon and apparently into Santa Clara County, about one-half mile away. I also headed up canyon but did not see any of the pigeons again. This grab shot of part of the flock in flight got too much sun but certainly accentuates the tail bands!

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

ISO

160

Focal length

13.3 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/1600 sec

Dimensions

3106 pixels x 2330 pixels

Original file size

592.28 KB