ML617406505

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

*high count: truly remarkable experience viewing these birds. During the time of this checklist, I remained largely stationary, generally in the vicinity of the San Marco Park entrance and just downstream. Vaux’s Swifts appeared to make a large push north today with numerous reports throughout Orange County, likely supported by stiff winds from the south. Count is given as what I feel is a conservative estimate for birds observed as specific counting of these flocks is difficult and determination of extent of returning by the same birds is hard to assess. Generally, there were 4-5 waves of birds during my observation period. Flocks were estimated to be of 75-100 birds in size, and additional smaller flocks of ~25 birds also passed through. Flock size as generally estimated by counting fractions of the sky, usually in groups of 25 and multiplying by remainder of similarly dense sky. Telephoto images regularly showed ~25 birds and were estimated to cover 1/4-1/5th of flock. Flocks appeared to come into creek area, make a few passes, and then leave the area, flying high and away downstream. In an attempt to capture the scale of this, images as wide as i could obtain with my camera and a video of one flock on my phone to support these claims. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ese1JIhqU

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

Lens

200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6

ISO

800

Focal length

200 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/2000 sec

Dimensions

1861 pixels x 1241 pixels

Original file size

453.74 KB