ML292215101

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Continuing individual first noted a few days prior by Brian Taber. Yellow malar and dotted flanks against a lighter coloration than Eastern; I did not observe the bird from the backside, or in flight. It took about 3.5 hours before I finally got on my first meadowlark this morning. While in my car on my way out, I saw Bill Williams pull in, so I backed up and chatted with him for a few minutes, and while talking about the BTNW in Virginia Beach I happened to catch a glimpse of white tail feathers flying across the private field to the west of Greensprings Road. I texted Arun Bose, who was further to the south, that a group of meadowlarks had landed and we, along with Nancy Barnhart (who had been to the east down the main gravel pathway (then joined by Brian Taber) set up scopes to view. Arun got on the Western and called it out, while I was on an Eastern. I then slid my scope left to view what I thought was the same bird. At the time I was expecting to see more extensive yellow on the face, and talked myself down from calling it after I thought I missed an ID-clinching photograph while reviewing my camera screen. Being overly conservative proved foolish in this case, but with an unfamiliar species seemed best at the time. Photographs later downloaded showed the proper marks so I input this one.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 6D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

250

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/800 sec

Dimensions

6240 pixels x 3857 pixels

Original file size

6.11 MB