ML565165651

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Truly incredible. The first group I tallied was 60-70 birds and I was thrilled. But as I drove the beach I realized it was an endless stream of phalaropes foraging in the surf, while seemingly all southbound. While stationary on public beach for 30 mins, I tallied ~1200 birds both southbound and on the water. I drove farther north towards the nauset spit and there were multiple aggregations feeding in the surf with hundreds still pushing south. Throughout the morning, I estimated another 300+ birds inland, either bombing over the parking lot, pochet marsh, or crossing the nauset spit. Even had several small groups resting on the beach. This is a conservative estimate as it could realistically be several thousand, but hard to get accurate count as I was not stationary throughout the morning. Estimated roughly 30% in full breeding plumage with roughly 70% molting. Small percentage in non-breeding. Hundreds of photos.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7M3

Lens

FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS

ISO

320

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/1600 sec

Dimensions

3741 pixels x 2494 pixels

Original file size

3.59 MB