ML211283331

Age and sex

Adult Female - 1

Observation details

Lifer! The all-black males with their bright orange, black, and white, wedge-shaped bills and white nape and forehead patches made for a quick ID. Females were dark brown, with about the same shape, but only a faint white area behind the eye on some of them. (backstory added 9/18/20) This was the last stop we made on a day trip down to Big Sur. We had hoped we might get lucky enough to see a condor, but that didn't end up panning out. We also hoped we could find a beach to have some fun on, but almost all the beaches were either expensive to visit or inaccessible for our family. We finally found a free beach where we could hang out for just a little while and get to easily here just south of Carmel. It was pretty cold, but our son was just happy to play in the sand, and that was good enough. What made it better for me was these really strange-looking little ducks in the low surf. I'll have to try going after the condors another time, but I can't complain about three new lifers in a day, and it seemed like the rest of the family had fun, too.

Technical information

Model

Pixel 2

ISO

55

Focal length

4.4 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/1.8

Shutter speed

453/200000 sec

Dimensions

4032 pixels x 3024 pixels

Original file size

2.04 MB