Semipalmated Plover – Small In Frame With Layers Of Color
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
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
Seven days shy of a year ago I found two rare Mountain Plovers in the White Rock Bay area of Antelope Island State Park and lately I have been hoping to see them again.
Shorebirds like this tiny Snowy Plover on a sugar sand beach were my "spark" birds when it comes to my bird photography and they are what made my passion for bird photography catch fire.
Eight months ago I spotted two Mountain Plovers on Antelope Island State Park and I am still blown away by seeing and photographing those beautiful shorebirds who are uncommon in Utah.
I photographed this Semipalmated Plover as it foraged along the Gulf of Mexico in Florida in 2008 while I laid flat on the wet sand getting soaked as the waves pushed onto the shore around the sand bar in the distance.
Shorebirds; like this tiny Piping Plover I photographed on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, are the primary reason I became addicted to bird photography.
I photographed this Snowy Plover one September morning in Florida and it was actually cool that day... for Florida.
This Black-bellied Plover was standing on a dunelet that wasn't much higher than the sand around it that had sparse short grasses which I found appealing.
A while back I did a post on the Least Sandpiper which is the world's smallest sandpiper so I thought I would do a post about North America's smallest plover, the Snowy Plover.
On April 10th I spotted two Mountain Plovers on Antelope Island State Park after reporting it to the UBIRD birding list many birders and bird photographers sped to the island to see these birds which are a rarity in this area.
Besides, to have gotten any lower than the Semipalmated Plover I would have had to have crawled down the burrow of one of those crabs
There are a few similar species that occur in Utah and surrounding states that could be confused with Mountain Plovers.
Even though I only got out to photograph birds three times this week each of the days I did get out were very memorable!
I wanted to share a few more of the Mountain Plover images I took which are a lifer bird for me as well as being rare in Utah.
What I saw through my lens was a Mountain Plover, a bird I have long dreamed of seeing. A rarity here in Utah.
I enjoyed my brief, long distance opportunity to photograph and observe these Wilson's Plovers and chicks, it was a small window into their life.
While photographing this Snowy Plover in June of 2008 I was able to observe the tiny shorebird snatch an ant from the sugar sand of the north beach of Fort De Soto.
Black-bellied Plovers in breeding and nonbreeding plumage can look like two different plover species but they aren't.
A simple image of a beautiful Snowy Plover in a rather goofy looking pose. The plover had been preening and paused for a few frames with its tail lifted up
One of the shorebird species I am able to see in Utah during migration that I photographed often while I lived in Florida are the lovely Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola).
Getting "Down & Dirty" is a way of being at eye level with your subject which brings the viewer into the bird's world and it can make the image feel more intimate too. Achieving those low angle perspectives can be quite messy and/or uncomfortable depending on the habitat.
Last week I photographed a Killdeer bathing at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area in Davis County, Utah.
As much as I like to compose images that are full frame I find that I often allow myself a touch of extra space around my subject so I can recompose in post processing by making different crops.
Last week I wrote about Long-billed Curlews having a Territorial Encounter but earlier that same morning I had another wonderful photographic encounter thanks to a scruffy looking, rain soaked Coyote waking up at the top of a ridge.
When I photographed Semipalmated Plovers in Florida I found that if I got down to their level and laid still they would approach me very closely. That takes patience but the effort is well worth it.
Piping Plovers nest in shallow scrapes in sand, gravel, salt flats or dunes which leaves their nests vulnerable to predators and in danger of being accidentally stepped on.
When I am out in the field I take a large amount of photos and there are times I don't get around to processing them until much later, these are two such images taken at Fort DeSoto, Florida in 2008.
I spotted this plover resting near the wrack line near the Gulf of Mexico during the winter and sand-crawled up close to it to get a low angle in the beautiful light.
As a "Nature" photographer one of my goals is to create images that show the bird or animal's natural habitat within the frame
Throughout the year you can see and photograph many different species of Plovers on Fort De Soto’s beaches, tidal lagoons and spartina marshes.