Thousands of Vaux's Swifts gather to roost in a local chimney every evening at dusk. I'm not sure whether this happens all summer or just in the fall. I don't know how I hadn't gone out to watch this before, but it was fun! It began a bit ominously because a Cooper's Hawk was already in position on the chimney when we arrived. After more than a half hour of a growing number of swifts circling overhead, it finally caught one and flew off. Once this daily sacrifice was complete, the mood lifted. A few minutes later the swifts began to swirl and pour into the chimney.
Counting the swifts was a challenge. I took a wide-angle photo with my iPhone of a particularly dense cloud of the birds, and I figure I got around half of the birds into the one photo. Using a bit of python code with the opencv library, I was able to count 4,900 birds in the photo. I'm intending to make a brief blog post about this since it may be useful for others.
I was also able to get out a few times and photograph some fall warblers. My strange streak of seeing Hermit Warblers continues! Maybe there are just more of them around this year.
These photos are © 2024 Phil Thompson, all rights reserved.
My "birds in review" collages can be found here.
Signature
📄 hashes-2024-09-20-101704.txt
📄 hashes-2024-09-20-101704.txt.sig
The above hashes-<date>.txt file contains SHA-256 hashes of all the photos
from this shoot. The hashes-<date>.txt.sig is a signature of that hashes
file, created with my PGP key. The signature file
itself was written to both the Bitcoin Cash and Algorand blockchains, in the
OP RETURN and Note fields respectively, using the transactions below.
In short, this proves that these photos and the signature both existed at the time the
transactions were written to the Bitcoin Cash and Algorand blockchains.
This blog post has more details.
view the BCH tx on blockchair.com: 849e9951cb40656860e9cdd9a40606b639aff6a77defccb309755a50e3d68d0c
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9:01AM Monday September 09, 2024
Killdeer
9:01AM Monday September 09, 2024
Killdeer
9:01AM Monday September 09, 2024
Killdeer
9:07AM Monday September 09, 2024
Belted Kingfisher
12:07PM Friday September 13, 2024
Turkey Vulture (Juvenile)
12:15PM Friday September 13, 2024
Yellow Warbler
12:15PM Friday September 13, 2024
Yellow Warbler
7:00PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Cooper's Hawk
7:03PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Cooper's Hawk
7:03PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Cooper's Hawk
7:10PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Peregrine Falcon (Juvenile)
7:16PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift, Cooper's Hawk
7:16PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift, Cooper's Hawk
7:23PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift, Cooper's Hawk
7:27PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift, Cooper's Hawk
7:28PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift
7:32PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift, Cooper's HawkI managed to (sort of) get a shot of the Cooper's Hawk with the swift it caught.
7:35PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's SwiftThis is the wide angle shot with 4,900 swifts, though they're probably impossible to see in this thumbnail.
7:38PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift
7:40PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift
7:42PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift
7:42PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift
7:42PM Saturday September 14, 2024
Vaux's Swift
7:14AM Sunday September 15, 2024
Greater White-fronted Goose (Juvenile)
7:14AM Sunday September 15, 2024
Greater White-fronted Goose (Juvenile)
8:35AM Monday September 16, 2024
Song Sparrow
9:07AM Monday September 16, 2024
Evening Grosbeak
6:40PM Monday September 16, 2024
Steller's Jay (Coastal)
6:40PM Monday September 16, 2024
Steller's Jay (Coastal)
6:40PM Monday September 16, 2024
Steller's Jay (Coastal)
12:25PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Wilson's Warbler
12:27PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Yellow Warbler
12:27PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Yellow WarblerThis fall warbler was a bit cryptic for me. I was debating between Wilson's and Yellow, but for a Wilson's, the head seems too elongated, the bill isn't exactly right, the eye ring too pronounced, the tail too short, and not enough of a green wash to the back.
1:20PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Hermit Warbler
1:20PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Hermit Warbler
1:27PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
unknown
1:30PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Townsend's Warbler
1:30PM Tuesday September 17, 2024
Townsend's Warbler
3:12PM Wednesday September 18, 2024
This was grown from seed in my yard, not wild.
9:14AM Thursday September 19, 2024
Cedar Waxwing
9:51AM Thursday September 19, 2024
Ring-billed GullI am far from an expert at gull ID, but I think I can ID this one. For a young gull, based on the overall pale color, bill color, eye color, patterning on body, and leg color, I'm pretty sure this is a Ring-billed. The bill looks a little heavy but not enough to disqualify it as a Ring-billed. Plus, the only gulls I've ID'd in the area the last few weeks have all been Ring-billed.
10:40AM Thursday September 19, 2024
Belted Kingfisher
10:47AM Thursday September 19, 2024
American GoldfinchI used Photoshop's "generative fill" feature to paint over a large background branch sticking straight out of the bird's head. I needed more control than Lightroom's new generative erase feature provides because it replaced a bit of the top of the bird's head.
10:48AM Thursday September 19, 2024
Warbling Vireo
10:48AM Thursday September 19, 2024
Warbling Vireo
10:52AM Thursday September 19, 2024
Great Blue HeronThis GBH was calling loudly and flying with neck extended like this for a few seconds, which was fun and unusual to see. It retracted its neck back into normal flying position soon afterward.
© 2024 Phil Thompson
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