ML69342361

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

One poor quality photo. I was sitting on the Dike above the flats watching the shorbs and pipits and scanning with my binoculars when I heard the first distress calls go up. The falcon was so close (maybe 30 feet away) that the sound of it wings was very loud to me and I heard it before I was able to see it. With naked eyes I got a short view as it flew very low directly into the mix of sandpipers and pipits but failed to snatch any prey. Once I was able to get my binoculars up I followed it across the flats and into the sky as it flew away (west / downriver). The back was a light, very sandy grayish-brown (far lighter than any PEFA I've ever seen) and I was able to quickly pick out that the face was overall lighter than the rest of the body and without any large dark patches and caught a brief view of the dark underside of the wing where they connected to the chest. I barely remembered to turn on my camera and fire off a shot as it was harassed by pipits and swallows. Exhilarating!!

Technical information

Model

DMC-FZ300

ISO

100

Focal length

108 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/4.5

Shutter speed

1/400 sec

Dimensions

1506 pixels x 1129 pixels

Original file size

169.85 KB