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.
Five years ago today I headed to the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park despite knowing that there were looming storms off of the coast hanging just off shore over the Gulf of Mexico and I am glad that I did because the light that day on the beach was exquisite.
Piping Plovers are small, sparrow sized shorebirds that are endangered and threatened in most of their range primarily due to human disturbance on their nesting grounds.
I wanted to share some bird lift off images today so I rounded up a few that showed different styles of lift offs.
I like to include habitat in my images when I am able to do so, especially when the habitat doesn't obstruct the view of my subject or when the habitat helps to define a sense of place.
In early June while in western Montana there was a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes on a small, privately owned pond near a gravel road foraging for prey that I couldn't resist photographing.
It won't be long before I start seeing juvenile Willets that are about the size of the one pictured here.
There are two subspecies of Willets which Western and Eastern, here in Utah I only see the Western subspecies but in Florida I could see both during the course of a year.
Just a simple Willet image today that I took on Antelope Island State Park earlier this month.
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
It really isn't too hard to spot this Spotted Sandpiper on the seawall, I just thought it was a catchy title. I saw my FOY (first of year) Spotted Sandpiper this past week and that got me excited.
The Willets are moving into their nesting territory on Antelope Island State Park and I am excited about that. What I am not excited about is that the biting gnats (no-see-ums) are back too.
Among the shorebirds I enjoyed seeing and photographing while I lived in Florida were Whimbrels, I could see flocks of 25 or more during the winter along the coast.
Five years ago today I was laying in the warm wet sands of Fort De Soto County Park's north beach as the salty water from the Gulf of Mexico soaked my skin while photographing a Ruddy Turnstone doing what they do best, turning things.
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.
American Oystercatchers were among my favorite shorebirds to photograph at Fort De Soto County Park's north beach when I lived in Florida.
Early morning light is a delight and adds a nice mood to images like this one of a Willet in flight.
March is a month when I begin to anticipate the arrival of Willets, I have been listening carefully for them and hoping to catch sight of them along the causeway to Antelope Island any day now.
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.
Since I moved to Utah I think of Long-billed Curlews as my personal harbinger of spring.
I photographed this Short-billed Dowitcher and the out of focus Sanderling the day after a storm had pushed mounds of Sargassum seaweed onto the wrack line and the birds were busy looking for food within it.
This Wilson's Plover and its mate were being run ragged chasing after the two chicks they had fledged, this adult stopped in front of me where I had laid down in the sugary white sand and rested a few moments in the dried Sea Purslane stalks.
I was tickled one morning when I came across this Turnstone in nonbreeding plumage perched on a piece of weathered driftwood just after the sun came over the horizon with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico behind it.
I've had the good fortune to photograph both the eastern and western Willets in breeding plumage, the eastern in Florida and the western in Utah and Montana.
Just a simple image of a male Black-necked Stilt taken earlier this year at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge. Very graceful birds.
Just a single image of a Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) that strolled past me while I sat in the water photographing it. Every time I look at this image I feel a wonderful sense of peace, the same feeling I had when I took this photo.
This was a life bird for my mother and I am glad she was able to see it strolling among the rocks on the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake while I photographed the curlew last week.
Black-bellied Plovers in breeding and nonbreeding plumage can look like two different plover species but they aren't.