ML503038281

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Presumably one of two birds found by Bill Tweit on the Washington side yesterday. Only seen thrice this morning, personally seen twice as opposed to it being constantly in flight last evening. Patty first spotted flying above mid-river, but I wasn't able to pick it out myself then. It then floated down river some time later with the constant rafts of BOGU which had it placed in Washington. Luckily Jenny, Patty, Kelli, Courtney, Jack, Colby, and I all got good looks at it then. We had taken the path down to the water on Bradford Island right as you're able to make the turn. The path led to rock scrambles and we traversed that to get a better view at the river edge. A while after the first observations of the day everyone else had moved on, but I was still crossing my fingers and toes that it'd decide to head over to Oregon and thusly Multnomah while planning on waiting as long as I could bear. With ABA listing rules and my Multnomah big year in mind I wanted to be absolutely sure I could see the bird cross over the state line. I had noticed more and more gulls circling the dam outflow that I was in view of as the sun came out, sea lions constantly nabbing massive fish here and there. One had gotten close to shore maybe 20 feet west of where I had been standing all morning. It seemed to be working on grabbing another meal while a second sea lion rolled up. They started tearing at the fish and making a ruckus and soon the gulls near and far started showing up. Holding my breath, I kept hoping the BLKI would somehow take notice despite not seeing it for a while. I then saw a black flash of a collar on a gull that just flew in and a dark terminal band on the tail. Holy shit!!!!!!!! THE SEA LIONS CHUMMED IN THE BLKI!!! I could not believe it and immediately started ripping photos as the feeding frenzy continued. The bird was within 20-50ft of me during this time which placed it squarely in Oregon and thusly Multnomah County! Over 2 hours of patience paid off in an instant. I have only seen this species on one pelagic trip previously and at a similarly close distance. The bold black collar was very distinct and allowed me to pick out the bird from afar in my personal first observation of the day. When the bird was flying nearby the bold black M on it's back and wings were quite visible. The bird also had a shorter black bill and a light-medium grayish mantle. Beautiful bird and quite a show for my Multnomah observation. I was able to get great photos of the bird as well with it being so close in. Still in awe.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 90D

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

800

Focal length

340 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/3200 sec

Dimensions

4044 pixels x 4044 pixels

Original file size

10.6 MB