ML338137331

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

**rare and late; 2nd county record and first spring record. Fairly early in the morning while standing around the parking lot I noticed two loons flying fairly close over the neck to the south heading east. The first was an adult COLO and the second was a smaller loon intermediate in size between RTLO and COLO. They were moving fairly fast so I suspected this species and snapped and a group of pics before the loons disappeared to the east. Afterward, I checked my pictures which confirmed my suspicions as they clearly showed some key features of PALO. My initial impression was a smaller streamlined immature loon flying slightly faster than the COLO. When looking at the pictures you can see a couple of other features -sharply contrasting straight neck border. - nape not as dark as the back -fairly rounded head -sharp smaller straight bill - appeared all dark around the eye -dark clear chinstrap Really cool bird to have in loon flight here. Could be an annual species here if I were to only focus on these large loon flights every fall and spring.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

2000

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

1952 pixels x 1478 pixels

Original file size

893.44 KB