ML646820311
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Media notes
underwing with partial shadow
Observation details
Adult, soaring near the mouth of creek just south of park's main beach access. Smaller than WEGUx thing that was nearby for a bit (but not as small as a BOGU), with more acrobatic flight style than a big gull (though not as buoyant as a BOGU). Remnants of black hood on face and back of head. In field, wings appeared to show a small black mark near tip of wings with small white spot at very tip, with a pale or white trailing edge to wings. The bird circled for quite a while, doing occasional loops and dives which allowed us to see both top and bottom of wings. It drifted north once, then came back and circled some more, then drifted west and came back and circled some more. Eventually it seemed to really be drifting northeast and gaining elevation. Note added after processed photos: It was striking how much shadowing affects appearance of underwing; examples included in photos uploaded here. Since we were mostly looking up at the bird it was tough to get photos of its topside, but a couple were included to show dorsal details. We wondered why the bird kept coming back and why it was circling so much just to the east of the beach (over the wetland behind the condos, I assume)--blurry photos reveal it was flycatching (best included here)! I also included one photo with treetops in the frame to show how low it was when foraging back there.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon PowerShot SX70 HS
- ISO
- 100
- Focal length
- 216.2 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Shutter speed
- 1/500 sec
- Dimensions
- 1884 pixels x 1412 pixels
- Original file size
- 266.43 KB