ML71383291

Age and sex

Immature Unknown sex - X

Media notes

© Shannon Hobson - cropped frame from her iPhone video

Observation details

I noticed this bird near the beach during the final hours of Hurricane Nate, which made landfall just west of Mobile AL overnight (after moving northward across the Gulf of Mexico from off of the Central American Caribbean coast). The bird was on the beach completely covered in blowing sand. I walked to it and saw the head move from its shoulders, as if it had noticed me. When I picked it up, I could see sand covering its eyes. I took the bird where I could remove the sand and soon released it. This immature was mostly brownish-black with some scattered white blotching possibly due to rather wet feathers. The breast whiteness in some of the cropped video frames was probably not visible in the field. The lower belly and undertail coverts weren't not noticeably white. No evident white edging to the upper wing coverts and scapulars. The bill was long and pink inside. The tail was moderately forked and brownish-black (paler gray below) without white edges. The underwing coverts were white, contrasting with the blackish remiges. After cleaning the bird for 15 minutes, I released it, and it flew strongly upward and continued flying away in 30 mph winds. About an hour later, I spotted a similar (same?) bird at Veterans Park about 5 miles to the west. The winds were strongly from the east. See http://ebird.org/ebird/edit/checklist?subID=S39809140

Technical information

Dimensions

1436 pixels x 1118 pixels

Original file size

956.39 KB