Shoot 2025-07-16-202950 — philthompson.me

Birds
Mandel

Older Gallery All Galleries Newer Gallery

Shoot 2025-07-16-202950

The first few photos are from our trip to the coast. I didn't get many bird photos on that trip, but I should have some Brown Pelican shots in the next gallery. We've had some solid summer heat the last few weeks, so I've been contending with the heat when carrying gear on trips out to see migrating shorebirds.

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

Signature

📄 hashes-2025-07-16-202950.txt

📄 hashes-2025-07-16-202950.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: 1ce9737d9281e2e45ef7794419fe21d0a2ef63837ca360c13b29d2ebc653ba60

view the ALGO tx on explorer.perawallet.app: P5XOCJORXKFSME6JAZL5UTLOF4AHPKADDCTXBJQOD4W4RHK2CLGA

10:41AM Sunday July 06, 2025

3:23PM Sunday July 06, 2025

11:00AM Wednesday July 09, 2025

Osprey (Juvenile), Osprey

Three big nestling Osprey are visible here, I believe the first time I've photographed some!

11:21AM Wednesday July 09, 2025

Osprey

The heat shimmer was pretty bad, but it was interesting to see this other adult near the nest but not on the nest. It might have been able to look for fish from this perch, but I'm not sure.

11:30AM Wednesday July 09, 2025

Brown-headed Cowbird (Juvenile)

11:52AM Wednesday July 09, 2025

Killdeer (Juvenile)

11:53AM Wednesday July 09, 2025

Killdeer (Juvenile)

12:39PM Wednesday July 09, 2025

California Gull

Gulls are few and far between inland here in the summer, so it was a treat to go looking for this bird and to actually find it! It looked like it was having a tough time dealing with the heat. I'm distinguishing from Ring-billed Gull by the dark eye (Ring-billed would be very light), the size of the bill (Ring-billed would be smaller), and the reddish orange orbital and gape line (Ring-billed would be more pure red).

12:40PM Wednesday July 09, 2025

California Gull

12:45PM Wednesday July 09, 2025

California Gull

12:45PM Wednesday July 09, 2025

California Gull

5:59AM Friday July 11, 2025

American White Pelican

This is the 99.4% illuminated moon, setting a few hours after the full moon on the 10th. I missed the focus on this shot, and the pelican is a bit soft. It still works when viewed at a small size.

5:59AM Friday July 11, 2025

6:29AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron, Purple Martin

I was approaching an area of ponded water where some shorebirds had gathered. I wasn't that close at all, and had been approaching quite slowly for a while, but this immature Heron suddenly flew out of the vegetation at the water's edge. I'm not sure why, but then Purple Martins chased after it!

6:29AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron, Purple Martin

6:29AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron, Purple Martin

6:29AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron, Purple Martin

6:31AM Friday July 11, 2025

Least Sandpiper

6:31AM Friday July 11, 2025

Least Sandpiper

6:40AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:40AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

My good luck this year with Virgina Rail continues! I never really got a nice pose with eye contact from this bird, but these few shots blow away all my other shots of an adult Virginia Rail. It was very rewarding to watch this one foraging in the mud for a short while.

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail

6:53AM Friday July 11, 2025

Long-billed Dowitcher

6:53AM Friday July 11, 2025

Long-billed Dowitcher

6:53AM Friday July 11, 2025

Long-billed Dowitcher

I'm always on the lookout for Short-billed Dowitcher, but these have pretty clear barring, not the spots that Short-billed would have, on the rear flanks/undertail area.

6:55AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron

For the immature Black-crowned Night Heron above, I mentioned I was approaching the little pond area slowly. It was a full 25 minutes later, as I was still making my way closer, before this mature one also flew up out of the shadows. It made a slow circle around me in the air, providing a great photo opportunity with the nice light from the rising sun.

6:55AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron

6:55AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron

6:55AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron

6:55AM Friday July 11, 2025

Black-crowned Night Heron

6:59AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail (Juvenile)

6:59AM Friday July 11, 2025

Virginia Rail (Juvenile)

7:16AM Friday July 11, 2025

Redhead

7:19AM Friday July 11, 2025

Greater Yellowlegs

7:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

American Bittern

7:41AM Friday July 11, 2025

American Bittern

Another encounter this season with a strangely bold American Bittern. Usually hidden away out of sight in tall grass or reeds, this one was standing right in the middle of the path!

7:48AM Friday July 11, 2025

Northern Harrier (Juvenile)

7:48AM Friday July 11, 2025

Northern Harrier (Juvenile)

7:48AM Friday July 11, 2025

Northern Harrier (Juvenile)

This rich brown Harrier is an immature or juvenile, and the brown eyes make this a female. She was sitting for a while here, again right in the middle of the path.

7:48AM Friday July 11, 2025

Northern Harrier (Juvenile)

9:39AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Turkey Vulture

This Vulture was making very low, very fast, and very impressive swoops over the grasses right in front of me. I managed to catch a few sharp frames. For this one, the bird was right at the edge of the frame. I used Photoshop to move the bird to a wider area of blue sky within the frame.

9:39AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Turkey Vulture

I again used Photoshop to move the bird to a wider area of sky within the frame.

9:39AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Turkey Vulture

9:39AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Turkey Vulture

9:39AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Turkey Vulture

9:40AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

9:51AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Hooded Merganser

10:33AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Wilson's Snipe

One benefit of having so little wet mud for the birds to pick from... they're going to be concentrated. As I stood near one of the few ponds some Wilson's Snipes came and went, and I got some mediocre photos of them (again, heat shimmer was an issue). I haven't got a photo of a Snipe of the ground in about four years.

10:33AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Wilson's Snipe

10:33AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Wilson's Snipe

10:40AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Least Sandpiper

A couple things distinguish this from a Western Sandpiper for me. The overall coloration is too brown, where Western would be more pale (unless it were breeding plumage, which this is not). The upper breast and front neck area is pretty heavily spotted with brown, where all non-breeding Western Sandpiper plumages are more clean white in that area. The head looks too small, and the legs don't look super black here. The bill also isn't long enough, and the reddish stripe on the wing isn't clear enough to indicate (juvenile) Western.

10:42AM Tuesday July 15, 2025

Least Sandpiper

This is also a Least Sandpiper. The legs look black here, but that's because the light is harsh and the legs are in shadow beneath the bird. The next image is of the same bird, and the legs look much more yellow when exposed to the light. The bill is also not long enough for Western Sandpiper.