ML615567928

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

While standing near the SW corner of the North Meadow, I heard distinctive slurred “slip-ip” calls and quickly realized that the birds were not in flight but calling from the ground, feeding on and around baseball field #3. I walked out carefully onto the field, and the birds moved around feeding comfortably for about 30 minutes as a kids soccer game started getting organized nearby. During this time, it was fun to observe at length their distinctive shape and movements, white outer rectrices, streaking below, olive backs, light stripes above eye and along throat, very slender bills, etc. They were periodically vocal, especially when a seventh individual flew in and landed around 9:05. About 9:15, they had moved out into a more heavily trafficked area of the field and were flushed east by pedestrians and athletes. I didn’t see them gain much elevation when they flew, but I could not re-find them in the west or east sections of the meadow. See photos.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D7100

Lens

70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-6.3

ISO

1600

Focal length

300 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/9.0

Shutter speed

1/8000 sec

Dimensions

1594 pixels x 1063 pixels

Original file size

1.01 MB