Shoot 2025-09-15-130424 — philthompson.me

Birds
Mandel

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Shoot 2025-09-15-130424

I managed to get my first photos of Bank Swallow, including some by accident! I wasn't able to find Baird's Sandpiper on a few attempts, but I did see a nice variety of birds on these outings including a Merlin one day and a Peregrine Falcon the next. Pectoral Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Fox Sparrow are also good birds for me. I'm enjoying the cooler weather and softer light as we transition into fall — more to come.

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

Signature

📄 hashes-2025-09-15-130424.txt

📄 hashes-2025-09-15-130424.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: b1ba242118638f16717ab3a21dde60eb19cad207797fb4ea654afc3a7cccb756

view the ALGO tx on explorer.perawallet.app: 3LPXV4GW4RBZQRE3OTM5DOCDYDB3JDRSMD2PUPJQUMFELNOBQDVA

9:52AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Purple Finch

9:58AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Ring-billed Gull

9:58AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Ring-billed Gull

9:58AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Ring-billed Gull

10:11AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Pectoral Sandpiper

10:11AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Pectoral Sandpiper

10:12AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Pectoral Sandpiper

10:18AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Northern Harrier, Merlin

10:18AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Merlin

This falcon was much smaller than the nearby Northern Harrier, and is very dark with heavy streaks along the flanks. Merlin!

10:18AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Merlin

10:22AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

10:37AM Tuesday September 09, 2025

Northern Pintail

11:50AM Wednesday September 10, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

I took a few shots of a Peregrine Falcon floating among a loose flock of feeding swallows, and noticed I got my first ever photos of a Bank Swallow!

11:50AM Wednesday September 10, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

This is another frame of the accidental Bank Swallow.

11:51AM Wednesday September 10, 2025

Peregrine Falcon, Barn Swallow

I guess this Peregrine was considering going after a swallow in mid-air. That would have been something to see!

11:51AM Wednesday September 10, 2025

Peregrine Falcon, Barn Swallow

12:05PM Wednesday September 10, 2025

Red-shouldered Hawk

8:34AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Chipping Sparrow

8:34AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Chipping Sparrow

8:47AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow

The bird was right near the edge of the frame, so I used Photoshop to move it in the frame for a better crop. I was taking photos of any swallows that weren't Barn Swallows, hoping to photograph a Bank Swallow... and the first one happened to be a Bank Swallow!

8:47AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow

The bird was right near the edge of the frame, so I used Photoshop to move it in the frame for a better crop.

8:47AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow

The bird was right near the edge of the frame, so I used Photoshop to move it in the frame for a better crop.

8:49AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

I got a number of photos of quite ragged-looking Violet-green Swallows.

8:49AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

8:49AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

8:49AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

8:49AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

8:50AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

8:50AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

9:00AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

9:01AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

9:01AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Violet-green Swallow

9:15AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

I scanned over a few resting Barn Swallows with my scope, hoping to see a Barn Swallow among them, and there was. I was able to locate it with the camera and get a few photos. I thought these were my first ever Barn Swallow photos, but it turns out I got a few earlier and even an accidental one the previous day.

9:15AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Violet-green Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:15AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:15AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:16AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Bank Swallow, Barn Swallow

9:19AM Thursday September 11, 2025

American Pipit

9:19AM Thursday September 11, 2025

American Pipit

9:19AM Thursday September 11, 2025

American Pipit

9:31AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Short-billed Dowitcher

9:31AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Short-billed Dowitcher

9:31AM Thursday September 11, 2025

Short-billed Dowitcher

I heard a few distinct Short-billed Dowitcher calls as this bird flew by a couple times over a span of a few minutes. On the second flyby, I was ready and got some shots. Short-billed are pretty uncommon here (and very hard to distingish from Long-billed), so it was great to get a lone bird where I know which one it was! No barring is visible on the flanks, only light spotting. Otherwise, I'm not sure any real field marks are visible here.