ML20932881
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
VERY RARE. Our target bird of the trip, and incredibly we connected. Flyby at 9:28AM, entire sighting lasting perhaps 1-1.5 minutes. Bird came in from north and was first spotted slightly north of our position on the end of the south jetty, frontlit. I immediately recognized it as a swallow, and upon lifting my binoculars immediately knew I was looking at a Cave Swallow. Whitish breast and belly contrasted with an obvious organge/buffy throat. This buffy throat connected into a similarly colored auricular and nape. Eye surrounded in dark. Rump orangish, like in Cliff Swallow. Upperparts dark. Tail seemed proportionately short. Forehead not assessed. Bird flew SE of us, about 30' overhead and into the sunlight. So I sprinted halfway to the base of the jetty to get a better light angle and was able to snap the included photos as it continued to the south. Inner primaries new and outer primaries retained, with molt limit somewhere near p6-8 (couldn't be exactly sure). No active growth of primaries noted, so appeared to be suspended/arrested molt, not active descendent molt.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 60D
- Lens
- EF300mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x
- ISO
- 1600
- Focal length
- 420 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/10.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1000 sec
- Dimensions
- 646 pixels x 467 pixels
- Original file size
- 16.68 KB