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From: Bartshe Miller
Sighting_Date: 8/2/03
Remote Name: 209.221.192.34
Date: 06 Aug 2003
Time: 13:00:05 -0400
For several days we had been experiencing a southerly, monsoonal flow out of the Gulf of California. Maybe this was the ticket for this individual?
Joel emailed me this description and photos:
I saw a young Magnificent Frigatebird on August 2nd, 10:43 AM, about 1-2
miles north of Lee Vining on highway 395. It was flying parallel to us as my wife
and I drove northbound, at eye level, giving an excellent view. We were
eventually able to pull off the road and watch it circle up and out of sight. I
am an experienced birder (20 years, close to 600 North American species), and I
have seen frigatebirds of various species at least 50 times. I have never
bothered to learn distinguishing field marks between different frigatebird
species, and I am assuming this sighting to be Magnificent because the probability
of any other species is extremely low. Following is a description.
Upon originally noticing the bird, it was flying north parallel to highway
395, just to the east of the highway in the section where the highway is close
to the shore of Mono Lake. Upon seeing it from the rear, I noticed its very
large size and deep wingbeats with its wings bowed much like a Great Blue Heron.
When we were parallel to the bird, I got a good look at its bill, face, long
wings and long tail and knew immediately what it was. After pulling over, we
got good views of the bird as it circled overhead gaining altitude. It was
all black except for a white throat and chest which I believe is indicative of
a young bird. It had very long pointed wings with a distinct crook in each
wing. The tail was very long and deeply forked, although most of the time the
tail forks were kept together in a point.
I got a couple lousy digital photographs of it overhead if you would like
documentation. The quality of the photos is poor but consistent with my
description.
- Joel Herr
Moraga, CA
