ML275109711
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
This loon was observed off and on in the west cell for about 20 minutes before it took off and was not seen again. Based on a study of the photos today (Oct 27) I am changing the ID from Common Loon to Red-throated Loon. Common Loon is the default species and I first entered that species although I didn't think it fit at all well with what I was seeing. After studying pictures of October loons using ebird Explore, I now feel confident the bird is a Red-throated Loon. Most of the throat is a dark dusky color all the way around. For a loon, the bill is relatively small, pointed, and consistently tilted upwards at an angle. Both Common and Pacific Loons in fall show a lot of white in the neck, especially down the front center. A number of Red-throated Loons in ebird show the neck pattern seen here. The photos were taken with a Coolpix P1000 at maximum zoom, 3000 mm and then cropped. The views shown in the uncropped photos (not included here) are roughly what I see when looking through a 20x Leica scope. The sky was overcast and the bird was directly north of me during the observation.
Technical information
- Model
- COOLPIX P1000
- ISO
- 640
- Focal length
- 234 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/800 sec
- Dimensions
- 1280 pixels x 1132 pixels
- Original file size
- 336.59 KB