ML150989941

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Conservative estimate, quickly counted by tens. I first heard them when I was nearing the end of a morning run, and after stopping and seeing the size of the flock I sprinted home and returned (in my car) about 12 minutes later with my camera and binoculars. Most of the birds were either perched in or moving between five or six large trees, one near the northwest corner of Sabattus and Howe, and the rest in the middle of the block bordered by Sabattus, Howe, Ash, and Horton. Roughly 25-35 more were in a crab apple tree behind the building with the Blue Goose and Luiggi's (which was the location for most of the photos below) and another 15-20 were in a nearby driveway poking around a bit of remaining ice and snow. Overall I think there were most likely over 400 birds, but it was hard to be sure given the multiple locations and the constant movement. Once I'd watched for a while and taken a number of pictures I drove home and told Christine about the birds (alas, she was still asleep when I returned earlier for the camera), and we were back at the location within 10 minutes or so. The flock had moved on, however, and the trees which had only moments earlier been the site of a loud and and active flock of BOWAs was now occupied by a few starlings, who were just kind of softly making their weird starling noises. We drove around the neighborhood for a few minutes -- as well as driving east down Webster, where we'd come across relatively large BOWA flocks a few years ago -- but never did find them.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

2500 pixels x 1442 pixels

Original file size

4.02 MB