ML615887140

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Flying together to the east and northeast of the platform a little before sunrise. Heavy headed with a flat face (thus not harriers), wingbeats slow, soft, and irregular as they flew, banking and swooping and occasionally landing and sitting on the ground for a short while. Visibility obviously not great at that time of day, but through the scope we were able to see the buffy primary patches on the upper primaries and the "comma" on the underwing. [FG:] No well-lit pics, but the early morning light to the east made for a few interesting silhouette shots. It was particularly interesting to see one Short-eared Owl flying fairly high above the ground (vs. low, as usual, like NOHA), which I had not seen during a previous dusk observation; and most interesting were the mid-air interactions between a Short-eared Owl and a Northern Harrier which appeared to dive-bomb one another at alternating intervals. The proximity of the two silhouettes also made for a nicely visible contrast of their overall shapes and sizes, as well.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D7200

ISO

800

Focal length

420 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/640 sec

Dimensions

1072 pixels x 820 pixels

Original file size

924.45 KB