ML543511921

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Continuing in same area as a couple weeks ago. Couldn't find any a few days ago in the snow but seems they're back. All the birds looked good for sabs with one slightly questionable bird but still probably sabs. Real skittish and get up and fly a long ways off when flushed but got pretty close to some of them today. Update - 3/8. Went and looked at some cenescens out to the east in antelope valley and apparent female canescens seem to be problematic, but they still had less well-defined streaks across the back. Otherwise they are paler with a paler gray, less contrasting head than singing males, making them look more Sabs like. Males on the other hand are pretty obvious with bold solid dark malars, very little streaking on the central back (what streaking was there was very faded and blended, not crisp at all or is restricted to the outer edge of the scaps which all birds show) and have a slightly darker more contrasting bluish head. They also seemed to have more prominent dark chest spot, but not sure how good that is. What's interesting is all the birds out there to the east are singing and seem to be on territory in pairs, these birds here are all mixed together and not on territory (eventhough i did hear a few sing mumbled songs when i first found this group back in feb). Among the birds here in western antelope valley there also isn't any really obvious male canescens, which is also interesting since you'd think if these were all canescens there'd be some bright more obvious birds (males). It seems these birds are just wintering here and will leave at point soon, which would probably make sense for sabs. The habitat that the birds are in here in western antelope valley is also very different from where the known canescens are out to the east: the habitat here is shorter wetter sagbrush, the bushes are smaller, more round and brighter green while the soil is more rocky with pebbles and weird little plants growing on the ground. There's also scattered joshua trees around for what that's worth. Out the east its drier, sandier, with more scraggly pale sage bushes - more harsh and desert like or where you'd see lcth.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

ISO

560

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/4.8

Shutter speed

1/3000 sec

Dimensions

2759 pixels x 1839 pixels

Original file size

2.39 MB