ML416621861

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - 1

Observation details

Very rare/ surprising date (3rd Monmouth County record, 2nd Sandy Hook record, and 2nd December record for New Jersey); immatures which flew into Spermaceti Cove marsh at 7:25am and continued in the area throughout the day; many photos. Extremely unexpected, especially considering date, and quite shocking when the first one flew in at close range in a cold, drizzled sleet! This first individual flew in at 7:25am while Dave Larsen and I were counting birds out on the Spermaceti Cove boardwalk, the bird quickly dropped into the marsh just north of the boardwalk and disappeared. After a few minutes this first individual picked back up, circled the area briefly, then dropped into a roadside drainage ditch at the edge of the marsh (just south of boardwalk entrance), this was followed almost immediately by a second bird appearing from somewhere to our north and also landing into this roadside drainage ditch. Both birds picked up again, this time disappearing in the marsh to our north, before again (roughly 15min later) flying back into the aforementioned roadside drainage ditch where they stayed till at least 4:15pm.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

1000

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

3600 pixels x 2400 pixels

Original file size

4.81 MB