Shoot 2025-06-30-091104 — philthompson.me

Birds
Mandel

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Shoot 2025-06-30-091104

A rare Least Tern was spotted at the local wetland yesterday, so I am quickly posting this gallery a bit out of order: some older photos will be posted in the next few days. I got a chance to get out to look for it in the late afternoon. It was 90 degrees in full sun, but there was a nice breeze and I was able to look east, away from the sun, while looking for the bird. I spotted it flying and was able to take some photos before it landed in the same spot some other folks had seen in a few hours earlier. This is the second Least Tern ever reported in the county, and the first not on the coast. The first was 28 years ago in June 1997!

My "birds in review" collages can be found here.

Signature

📄 hashes-2025-06-30-091104.txt

📄 hashes-2025-06-30-091104.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: c1dc163dcc0ba8c0a999005143aa1f54e5b6478bb49ae16480f3859a01b6ec9a

view the ALGO tx on explorer.perawallet.app: ASCAOYZD2OREXL2H2OJYYLO2MO75G3SUWUKZEQW7R4UK2S6PXVHA

7:58PM Thursday October 17, 2024

This is an updated version of my Moon composite shot from last November. I fixed the orientation of the Moon by rotating it a little clockwise. It now matches how it would have appeared in the sky. I'll post the full size version on my AstroBin.

6:15AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Turkey Vulture

7:48AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Cedar Waxwing

I don't see Cedar Waxwings hanging out on rocks by water very often, so I took a few shots.

7:48AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Cedar Waxwing

7:58AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Clark's Grebe

7:58AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Clark's Grebe

8:01AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Osprey

This Osprey dropped some nesting material off at the nest. A nestling Osprey wing is visible here.

8:15AM Sunday June 29, 2025

Western Tanager

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

In flight, this bird stood out quite a bit from the Black Terns that are commonly seen here. I would guess this bird arrived here in the last day or two and hasn't been here all season.

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:09PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern

5:10PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern, Killdeer

This is a good size comparison with a Killdeer. The Least Tern is a bit smaller than the Black Terns that were also flying around.

5:10PM Sunday June 29, 2025

Least Tern, Killdeer

I was surprised how well the photos turned out in the heat. I guess by late afternoon there isn't much heat difference between the air and the water, so heat shimmer isn't a big problem like it is in the late morning.