ML186661271

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

Lifer! First record at this location since 2009 and only the third record ever. Seen foraging along the lakeshore near the docks and boat launch on the north side of the lake. At first I thought it was a sandpiper, but quickly realized it was a good deal taller and with a more rounded head and more patterned breast than most sandpipers. Generally dark, cool tones, black bill and legs, dark line behind the eyes, and pale eyebrow line above it. (backstory added 8/10/20) Less than 10 minutes after getting my second lifer of the jog, I nearly ran past this third one. I had no idea what it actually was, but I knew for sure it was new, and while I think I caught it's attention when I stopped running, it was bold enough to stick around and let me get some of my best digiscope photos to date. I was confident I'd be able to figure out the ID, and over the moon at how awesome of a morning it had been. The Merlin app pointed me in the right direction for working out the ID, but it also said the bird was rare for my location, so I asked What's This Bird if someone could confirm. They did, and said it isn't rare. The more I've learned the more I think Merlin could use an update in terms of how it ranks certain birds as rare or not, but it's been great with bird ID, so I certainly don't want to complain about a free resource that has done so much for me. Anyway, it was a great run and the first time I had ever found three new life birds in the same place without it being some new place I traveled to. In other words, it's the first time I got three lifers in one day at a familiar patch. It's only happened again once since then.

Technical information

Model

Pixel 2

ISO

51

Focal length

4.4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/1.8

Shutter speed

171/125000 sec

Dimensions

4032 pixels x 3024 pixels

Original file size

1.62 MB