ML94435241

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - X

Observation details

Picked this bird up through bins perched up about 500 m away. After checking the nest, we drove a little closer before I proceeded on foot. After about five minutes searching I found the bird foraging under a saxaul bush. It proved a little skittish but with a bit of careful manoeuvring I managed to get the crunching views I was after along with a few photos. It was really enjoyable watching it quickly bounding across the sand between bushes, often proving a little difficult to keep up with and rather dinosaurian or raptor-like! On a couple of occasions it appeared to have located some tasty morsels so spent some time digging into the sand with its bill. On one of these occasions I was a little closer than it wanted me to be so it gave me a couple of quizzical looks before eventually trusting me and moving closer to keep digging. I didn't actually see it fly but after briefly losing it a couple of times I found it perched on top of a bush; not really doing anything maybe just looking to see what's going on in its territory. Overall, a fantastic experience!! Pleased to have finally got to grips with this unique regional endemic.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

200

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

2401 pixels x 1601 pixels

Original file size

2.31 MB