ML530279591
Colaborador
Data
Localização
- Idade e sexo
- Fêmea Adulta - 1
Notas sobre o média
Continuing female White-winged Scoter, initially reported from this site on 22 January 2023 by Jason St. Pierre, was here photographed by Curtis A. Marantz from the Palo Verde Diversion Dam, lower Colorado River Valley, Riverside County, California. Although this bird was seen on both sides of the lake, it was on the Arizona side of the river when this photograph was taken.
Detalhes da observação
I spotted the continuing female on the lake shortly after we arrived at the parking lot near the dam, yet over the course of our visit, we had a difficult time following this bird given ghat it moved around extensively. Although initially seen along the western bank of the lake, when we tried to get closer, we relocated the scoter out in the middle of the lake, and it later began foraging along the eastern shore a short distance upstream from the dam. Eventually, the scoter took flight one last time and flew well upstream before turning around and circling over the central portion of the lake and eventually landing about where I initially spotted it along the western shore. Overall, we saw this bird at moderate distance, but in good light, and primarily in the middle of the lake or along the eastern shoreline. This was a large duck that was both noticeably larger and heavier-bodied than the other ducks that we saw on the lake in direct comparison. The head was large, even for a duck, and with a unique shape that combined only small projection of the unfeathered portion of the bill beyond the strongly sloping and fully feathered forehead. The unfeathered portion of the bill was relatively slim as it extended from a base of medium depth to a blunt tip. The feathering on the forehead extended down to where the nares would likely have been. The sloping forehead extended up to a rounded to dome-shaped crown, behind which, the back of the neck sloped steeply down to the back. The head was large, the neck was short and relatively stout, and the body was plump, full-chested, and sitting relatively high on the water. I was unable to see anything on the structure of the closed wings when the bird was on the water, and because I concentrated on getting photos when the scoter was in flight, I could only see that the neck was outstretched and the wings tapered from relatively deep bases to broadly pointed tips. The tail was conspicuously short and cocked upward at an angle roughly diagonal above the level of the water. I saw only when this bird landed on the water that the legs were short and the feet webbed. This bird was a dark, chocolate-brown to sooty-brown overall, and seemingly with the head and neck a bit darker than the body. Contrasting rather sharply with the generally dark head were two white spots, a more rounded spot below and behind the eye and a more oval-shaped spot below and before the eye that extended well out toward the base of the bill. I was also able to see at times a sliver of white in the closed wings that I was able to confirm on the flying bird represented a broad rectangle across the secondaries on wings that were otherwise quite dark. I thought the tail may have been a bit paler than the rest of the bird, this presumably reflecting wear rather than paler feathers. Finally, when this bird rolled over to preen, it revealed what appeared to be a uniformly dark belly that did not contrast with the breast or flanks. The bill was black, at least when seen from a distance, and the eyes appeared to be dark from this same distance. As seen briefly when the bird landed on the water, what I could see of the legs and webbed feet appeared to be quite dark.
Informação técnica
- Modelo
- ILCE-7RM5
- Lente
- FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
- ISO
- 320
- Distancia focal
- 600 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/6.3
- Velocidade do obturador
- 1/2000 sec
- Dimensões
- 1100 pixels x 686 pixels
- Tamanho do ficheiro original
- 932 KB