ML375309821

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

This little gem made my day. Many thanks to Grub and Brandon, who practically served her up on a platter to me (not literally, jeez). They found her and clued me in, and Grub’s location description was perfect. When I arrived at the creek it was silent. I didn’t hear a single bird for the first 10 minutes. The breeze made it so every leaf on every tree was trembling and every second or so, a leaf would float to the ground, triggering my bird movement attention. Then I found a little flock of Orange-crowneds and she popped up. She practically blended in with the smoky sky—drab but dark olive greenish above with a slight bluish tinge to the wings and light gray under with a wash of reddish brown, though it could’ve been the lighting from the red sun on this depressingly smoky day. She showed the characteristic white wing check/square/triangle/spot at the base of her primaries, poking out below her primary coverts, and a light supercilium and half bottom eye ring. Her malars were slightly darker than her throat. I sat with her for maybe 25 minutes watching her forage diligently near (but not with) the OCWAs, chipping every so often. I would’ve stayed all afternoon if it weren’t for the smoke.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D800

ISO

1600

Focal length

260 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/9.0

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

2049 pixels x 1367 pixels

Original file size

559.85 KB