ML279687231

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

First picked up this distinctive ternlike gull over 500 yards away at about 33.528384, -79.028645 preening on the opposite jetty near the end of the session with waves breaking over the jetty all around the bird on its temporary roost. After a few minutes the kittiwake took to the air and headed straight out offshore along the jetty and afforded me a nice flyby. First winter bird, dark spot behind dark eye, black bill, black half-collar, and short black legs and black feet. Bold black M pattern on upperwings and black terminal tail band in flight. Handheld phonescoped video screen captures shot with 2007 Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED Angled with 25-75x zoom eyepiece at full 75x max optical zoom, and with iPhone 7 video camera, sometimes at full digital zoom (5x), manually held up to scope eyepiece for up to about a 375x equivalent! Recommend folks try full phone zooming through a scope. Quality can go down but magnification can go way up which is sometimes really essential. Maybe best viewed at max resolution on a big screen or on device at full zoom.

Technical information

Dimensions

1085 pixels x 621 pixels

Original file size

52.88 KB