ML466671321

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I was surprised to see this apparently continuing bird around 0815 hr as I drove east on Ave C toward the gazebo (after I had already walked the same route earlier in the morning). I was just east of the yellow utility box a couple of hundred meters east of Parking 1 when it flushed out of a willow and flew about 50 m down to another willow; it flushed another time and I was able to see it land in a distant willow and get my scope on it (and snap one very bad photo). This is the first time I have actually seen this bird perched and I was able to see the decurved bill with a deep yellow basal half to two-thirds of the mandible as well as the rufous wash in the flight feathers and the clean contrast between the gray-brown crown/neck and the pure white throat and breast. It flew on more time to another willow farther east, then flushed from that willow and flew back to the west. Later, after I had driven around Duckbill just before departing, I saw it fly west from around Parking 1 along the line of willows leading west; it flushed one more time, and eventually flew all the way to the tall dead burned cottonwood at the west end of the riparian row. I could get my scope on it and see that it had a prey item in its bill -- likely one of the thousands of Blue Dashers that were all over the foliage of the shrubs and trees. It then flew back east into the large cottonwood at Parking 1.

Technical information

Model

DSC-RX10M4

ISO

100

Focal length

220 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/4.0

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

1278 pixels x 852 pixels