ML316981981

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Cell phone view with a normal focal length lens.

Observation details

First seen at 12:30 about 1/2 mile east over the north end of Eaton Canyon. Distant photos. Then seen flying by in a long line with about 80 birds in the largest clump. Initially counted by ones, then fives, and then 20s. Stragglers continued to stream by for another 5+ minutes and totalled another ~50 birds. Most of them were light morphs. Based on detailed counts of birds visible in the images below, the total of 150 is probably a significant understimate (by at least 50 birds and possibly 100). Photo ML316976641, The first photo below, shows 92 birds. It was taken with a 400 mm lens at 12:35 pm while the birds were roughly 1 km to the east. This is how the birds appeared when I first saw them and before they flew by. Photo ML316980231, the second photo below, was taken with a point & shoot camera with a short telephoto lens. A detailed count of an enlarged version of this shows 128 hawks, with another 20+ already out of view to the left, and several dozen more not yet in view to the right. This establishes that the earlier total of 150 hawks was probably a significant underestimate. The time set on the camera was wrong by several minutes so the precise time of this image is not known. Photo ML316981981, the third image below, was taken at 12:41 PDT with a cell phone camera using a normal focal length lens. This was taken roughly one minute after the previous photo, so it may show some of the same birds. I counted 106 hawks in this image. A few dozen stragglers appeared after this image was taken.

Technical information

Original file size

3.26 MB