ML355236771
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
**Potential First for St. Louis County and 2nd summer record for Missouri (Robbins (2020)).** - Found yesterday by Ken Smith. - Seen with Connie Alwood, Mike Thelen, Brian Stamper, Nancy Clogston, Ken Smith, Diane Bricmont, and Trevor Leitz. - Watched this morning at a distance of ~100-130 yards for almost two hours as it sat, swam, sat, swam. - Direct comparisons with eclipse plumaged Mallards for entire duration of this checklist. - Warm brown bird overall; body feathers had brown chevron edges, but I would say they seemed a bit worn and not as bright as I have seen on other Mottleds. - Overall, the darker body and buffy head neck was easy to pick out when bird was feeding or resting with the mallards; which had paler brown bodies with grayer heads and neck; and most also had gray or gray/orange bills, but a couple had much more yellow bills. - Bill drab olive, with black at gape. - Speculum overall a darker blue, almost purple compared to the Mallards speculum. Cannot say I saw any white border to the speculum when it flexed its wings (and I saw it flex its wings a handful of times). All Mallards speculums were bordered in broad white; and for the most part obvious when they were at rest or swimming. - Crown and back of neck much darker. - Dark line through eye. - Orange legs. - No hybrid traits observed.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 70D
- Lens
- EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM +1.4x III
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 560 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1000 sec
- Dimensions
- 1038 pixels x 692 pixels
- Original file size
- 330.26 KB