ML620150645

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Heavily cropped, bird was on the buoy for about 3-4 mins

Observation details

on a tip from Sam Collins and after checking Windy.com to check the direction of the wind Jer and I decided to head to the point this afternoon as winds and the storm on the S side of the lake were potentially funneling birds towards the Bowmanville/Oshawa area- not long after arriving on the beach we noticed several likely candidates- the first arctic was off the main beach headed E- four others were in a rough group we noticed from the E fence banning people from the crescent beach headed W and one other bird, a roamer that came right into the bay just to the E of the point for a time before heading W- this bird- we believed moved back and forth around the buoy- perhaps 500m out from the crescent beach to the E of Beaton Point- all birds looked to have all red bills with what looked like a smushed face- a steeper, more pronounced forehead than COTE's- sort of like a hoary redpoll vs a common- these birds looked more buoyant and bouncy fliers and less powerful than nearby COTE"s- they also dove less often- several times I noticed the birds swooping down and appearing to scoop something off the water which is a characteristic akin to arctic's- the tails looked longer at least when compared to the body- there was no obvious dark wedge on the primaries which is seen on commons in the spring and the wings were paler overall- also the bodies of the nearby COTE's were stouter and more robust whereas the arctic's looked much sleeker- a great day for a lake watch- all tolled we spent a good 2 hours on the lake and it was well worth it- a big thanks to Sam Collins for the tips

Technical information

Model

DC-FZ80

ISO

80

Focal length

215 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.9

Shutter speed

1/320 sec

Dimensions

955 pixels x 577 pixels

Original file size

94.36 KB