ML357928551

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

FOY. Large, all-dark swifts with proportionally long, sickle-shaped wings. Tail long and lightly forked, sometimes spread in flight. A flock of 4 appeared almost as soon as I reached the point south of the beach. They spread out and foraged over a large area to the south. Quick, shallow wingbeats and powerful, acrobatic soaring over land and ocean at varying altitude. For a brief moment I saw 5 together, but mainly was seeing 2-4 birds at a time. I hustled further down the bluff and found a nice vantage point. The swifts foraged back and forth around me for about half an hour. I did not witness repeated trips to a cave or perch which might indicate feeding of young, nor was I able to make out any white markings on birds which would indicate fledged juveniles. I did see 2-3 birds come very close to one another in flight multiple times, and heard vocalizations. It seemed that at least 1 bird was 10-20% smaller but I'm not sure if this is an indication of fledged juveniles. 1 bird molting secondaries? All in all an amazing experience and by far the best looks I've ever had at this species. Several times a bird passed within 20 feet of me as I stood on the bluff

Technical information

Model

NIKON D5100

Lens

150.0-500.0 mm f/5.0-6.3

ISO

3200

Focal length

500 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/800 sec

Dimensions

4982 pixels x 3300 pixels

Original file size

4.52 MB