ML129480801

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

On CR 900 just south of CR 500. A rough estimate, as it was hard to accurately count birds. The birds were constantly flushing and flying to nearby fields, then returning to their "favorite" corn stubble/weedy field. This was the highest count that I could get at any one point in time, but there were likely more around. Most individuals were fairly bright yellowish or tan, but a few still had streaks on the underparts. Most were showing some signs of a black and white head pattern. A few showed signs of molt on the head (SMLO apparently do a PA molt according to Michael Retter). I was surprised by how different the rattle call sounded compared to a Lapland. It was noticeably lower pitched, with the notes more widely spaced and trailing off slightly at the end. A few individuals were giving snippets of song, a scattered jumble of short sweet notes, which was really cool to hear. A few photos:

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi

ISO

800

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/9.0

Shutter speed

1/1600 sec

Dimensions

776 pixels x 518 pixels

Original file size

245.47 KB