A few days ago the ABA announced the 2017 Bird of the Year as the Ruddy Turnstone and I couldn't be any happier because shorebirds were my "spark" birds that propelled me into the world of bird photography.
I kept this photo of the Reddish Egret with the surprise curlew in the background not because it is a great image but to remind myself to look beyond the subject in front of me.
Whenever I view this photo of a lone Black Skimmer in flight on a foggy Gulf shore I feel a wave of joy and peaceful feelings wash over me.
I feel worried for the future and I am filled with angst right now and I know I am not alone. However; I do know that even when times are difficult life is good. The sun rises after every sunset.
On a hazy, windy day in May of 2008 I was able to sand crawl on my belly close enough to some Black Skimmers to watch and photograph them courting.
I did see and photograph this adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron standing on a grassy sand dune overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in beautiful, soft light.
One a fall day at Fort De Soto I was able to photograph this Black-bellied Plover on a foggy morning up close on the beach.
This sleeping Willet image remains one of my favorite images because it was so comfortable in my presence that it fell asleep.
Last night I spent some time dreaming of oystercatchers. I could hear them in my dream and see them scurrying along the waves.
I knew where this camouflaged Wilson's Plover chick was when I photographed it from a distance but realized that if I didn't point out that there was a chick in the image that other people might not even know it was there.
This Gulf Coast Snowy Plover was photographed at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida and the park was the first place I had ever photographed this species.
I took this image of the Piping Plover on a shell covered beach right after the sun came up when the light had that sweet golden tone to it
This Dunlin was just about finished molting into its breeding plumage and would have soon been on its way to the Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra to breed and raise its young.
I watched this juvenile American Oystercatcher on the shore of the Gulf grow up in 2008 at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach.
I am not sure why this particular Ghost Crab was out of its burrow during the day but I was happy that I had the opportunity to photograph it.
Every time I look at this tern image I laugh because my mind sees a tiny starfish stuck on the birds face that is actually its bill.
Owls are well known for being able to turn their heads 270 degrees, Long-billed Curlews aren't.
This is just a simple post of a foraging Western Sandpiper that I found while working on moving my images from their old galleries to the new ones yesterday.
I'm sharing a simple Semipalmated Sandpiper image today that I photographed at Fort De Soto's north beach back in May of 2009.
One July morning at 2008 I came across quite a few Common Terns at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach.
When I photographed this resting Ruddy Turnstone male on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico in 2009 I knew it wouldn't be long before he migrated to a rocky arctic coast to breed.
The Reddish Egrets I photographed that May morning were busy hunting and paid me almost no attention as they went about their daily business of find prey.
American Oystercatchers are specialized in that their diet consists of bivalves and they do use that flashy orange bill to pry some of them open.
Six years ago this morning I was photographing birds at Fort De Soto County Park and I wanted to share a few images and memories of that day.
I came across this diminutive Least Sandpiper while photographing Greater Yellowlegs at a tidal lagoon at Fort De Soto's north beach in the fall of 2008.
Moving; even just a little bit, can change the background of an image even when the subject is stationary.
This photo of a Semipalmated Plover on the shore of the Gulf was purposely photographed so that the plover would be small in the frame
As a bird photographer I feel it is very important to me that my images show my subjects and the settings they are in as accurately as possible.
Great Blue Herons are wading birds that I photographed quite often at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach while I lived in Florida.
Soon Caspian Terns will be back in Utah flying over rivers, ponds, lakes, and other freshwater impoundments searching for prey.