ML621147862

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Behaviors

Flying

Observation details

Rare - prolonged views (2 min) from the beach at the J-hook as it traveled south/southwest over the gulf. Fairly distant, at closest ca. 1/3 mile offshore, but in good enough light to easily discern uniformly dark plumage with no obvious contrast between underparts and upperparts. Structurally classic Sooty - a medium-sized shearwater with long, thin wings held stiff and slightly bowed at the wrist as it flew in high, wheeling dynamic soaring arcs offshore. By plumage, obviously a dark Ardenna - it was never at a close enough distance where I felt comfortable assessing the relevant field marks for separating Sooty from Short-tailed, but given the date and the recently documented presence of Sooties in the Gulf this spring, I’m comfortable with species-level ID here. I never saw it flap in the few minutes we watched it (although it was always invisible behind wave troughs at the bottom of the arcs) - it did a little back and forth wheeling in the 20kt SSE wind but otherwise moved south fairly purposefully. Made some largely unsuccessful attempts at photos and videos - will upload the few poor and distant photos that include the bird. Will also submit to TBRC.

Technical information

Model

DC-G9

ISO

320

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

1806 pixels x 1355 pixels

Original file size

354.13 KB