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Tony
Trad climber
Pt. Richmond, CA
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I've viewed the Northern Gannet that has been present at Alcatraz twice recently. This is almost certainly the same bird that was first seen at the Farallon Islands in April, 2012. A couple weeks ago it showed at Alcatraz for a day, returned to the Farallons briefly, and has been at Alcatraz since for about two weeks. It is hanging out among nesting Brandt's Cormorants.
Both times that I have viewed it the wind was too high to get any kind of decent digiscope photo. Yesterday I got to watch it take several short flights, including one time when it foraged offshore for a while.
This awful shot is the best I could do:
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Here is a shot from the Farallons that I took on a pelagic trip last July:
I'm holding out hope that it will explore this part of SF Bay so we can get it on the house list.
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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Tony,
Are there any guesses where this one summers and winters?
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Tony
Trad climber
Pt. Richmond, CA
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Darwin,
It has remained in the the area throughout the last two years. I don't believe that adults are generally long distance migrants, although they range 100s of km to forage.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Lasti, nice shot! Looks like you used center-weighted metering plus it is sharp!
Bob, where were the Ibis, at Bosque?
Tony, yer right, the first shot sucks! ;-)
But the second is GUD! I had my fill of N Gannets in Gaspé but it would
be cool to notch one up here in Cali.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Reilly...Walden Ponds near Boulder. I head back to NM in a few weeks.
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Tony
Trad climber
Pt. Richmond, CA
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Reilly,
Glad you liked it!
It also seemed strange to me to be so excited to see a single Northern Gannet after seeing many thousands in Scotland, but imagining how its journey to the Pacific Ocean came to be is kind of fascinating.
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Lasti
Trad climber
Budapest
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Yeah Reilly, thanks for the tips, though for some reason the focus is still rarely spot-on. Maybe that's where throwing more money at the boid would help.
More to come.
Lasti
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Lasti, are you also using center-weighted focus? For birds I usually use
the spot focus so there is no doubt. Bumping the f stop to at least f11 will also help.
But your partridge shot is a big improvement! :-)
And we want some Upupa epops, you hear?
Is this the oft-mentioned 'stinkeye'?
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Lasti
Trad climber
Budapest
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Hey Reilly,
I do use spot focus, but still.
Here's some upupa for you, but I hope to get a better shot soon. They are a bit boring when just standing around, but quite quick on the takeoff, so difficult to shoot - for me.
But for a better picture, I submit this Rufous Treepie.
Lasti
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Lasti, you are devious, dude! I was like "Rufous Treepie"? WTF? I thought
I knew my European boids, if mostly in Swedish. I thought maybe he was
a Eurasian steppe visitor to eastern Hungary. I had to go to Mr Google
for him. HaHaHaHa!
So do you live in Buda or Pest? ;-)
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little Z
Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
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cool new birds for here Lasti. I remember when Gray Partridge was called Hungarian Partridge. Fun to see a photo of one on its home turf.
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Lasti
Trad climber
Budapest
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Devious is an understatement in this case. The birds are all shot in Pakistan and India, as I reside in this part of the world for now. Kept the location Budapest to fight homesickness.
Lasti - the devious one
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dirt claud
Social climber
san diego,ca
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Cool pictures Lasti.
Here is a cool one I found on the web just now
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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When climbing in the San Luis valley for two days, managed to do three new routes and got some birding in.
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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Here are a few from our Spring Pelagic trip last week.
Scripps Murrelet
Red and Red-necked Palaropes
More SCMU
Elegant, Black and Common Terns
Black Terns
Rhinoceros Auklet
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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The Forster's Terns at Bolsa Chica were pretty tame.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Dood, how bout some details? Black Terns, really?
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dee ee
Mountain climber
citizen of planet Earth
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It was the first time I've seen Black Terns in breeding plumage.
We spent 8 hours out in the OC waters and even went into LA County for awhile.
The actual highlight of the trip were the Minke Whales we encountered. 2 or the same one a couple hours apart. The first one zig-zagged back and forth under the boat. On our second encounter the whale put on quite a show breaching 6 or 7 times in the space of less than 2 minutes. "Captain Mike" (veteran of hundreds of whale watching and pelagic birding trips) said it was "a once in a lifetime experience." They are fairly common but not very social.
The dude was around 20 feet long.
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BrassNuts
Trad climber
Save your a_s, reach for the brass...
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Nice Whale show DE! I'm finally home with some time to sort and edit bird pics from recent weeks, so here's a starter set from March...
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