ML132918261
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Given that we saw so many Sabine's Gulls on this trip, I did not write separate descriptions each hour or even note which ones were seen better than others. Over the entire trip, or even each day, however, we were able to see at least some of these bird quite well and I took photos of some of the closer birds. As such, I am including for each hour noted the same composite description for this species and will add when possible any photographs that I was able to get during the appropriate hour in which they were taken. Many of the birds that we saw were adults in alternate plumage with full, dark hoods and I saw none that had an obvious tail-band. These were generally small gulls that had slim, pointed wingtips, and flew with a buoyant, tern-like flight often well above the water, but some birds were seen sitting on the water in small to medium-sized flocks. As far as I could determine, the birds seen well all had the neck, underparts, rump, and tail entirely white. The medium-gray of the back and wing coverts contrasted sharply with a black wedge that extended along the leading edge of the wing and a broad white wedge that appeared to cover the secondaries, innermost primaries, and probably also at least some of the upperwing coverts. I never did see a pale tip to the bill, or the the colors of the eyes, legs, or feet. These birds were seen in a single flock of which I was able to get some photos taken at moderate distance. It further appears from my photos that our estimate in the field of 25 birds was just a little low, given that I can count 28 birds in one photo [1/25/0]
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D
- Lens
- EF400mm f/5.6L USM
- ISO
- 500
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1250 sec
- Dimensions
- 3200 pixels x 1919 pixels
- Original file size
- 5.73 MB