{"id":5053,"date":"2012-05-23T05:31:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T11:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2025-05-26T08:52:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T13:52:57","slug":"western-sandpiper-on-the-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/05\/23\/western-sandpiper-on-the-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Sandpiper on the Go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It dawned on me this morning that I haven not posted an image of a Western Sandpiper here yet so I pulled this one out of my archives that I photographed at Fort De Soto, Florida as the small shorebird ran in front of me on the shoreline.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-147475 size-full\" title=\"Western Sandpiper on the go, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446.jpg\" alt=\"Western Sandpiper on the go, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"11419\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Western Sandpiper on the go &#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR with 1.4x TC at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Western Sandpipers winter along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coastlines as well as in the Caribbean and interior Mexico. The bird above was going into breeding plumage as indicated by the rusty cap and cheek patch, in full breeding plumage the wings would also show more rust color.<\/p>\n<p>I was laying in the wet sand on the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico when I created this image, I had been photographing nearly stationary birds when I saw this sandpiper about to run in front of me so I panned my lens to keep up with the running bird. I didn&#8217;t have time to change my ISO to gain shutter speed so the movement of the legs is not frozen. In this case though I like the motion blur of the legs because in my eye it shows movement.<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/western-sandpiper-images\/\">here<\/a><\/span> to see my Western Sandpiper photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It dawned on me this morning that I haven not posted an image of a Western Sandpiper  here yet so I pulled this one out of my archives that I photographed at Fort De Soto as the small shorebird ran in front of me on the shoreline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,1543],"tags":[4004,4039,4053,4392,4077,14827,4148,3521,992,4891,274,4188,3996,4119,4391],"class_list":["post-5053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-western-sandpipers","tag-adult","tag-beach","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-calidris-mauri","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-motion-blur","tag-running","tag-sandpiper","tag-sandpipers","tag-shore","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-shoreline","tag-water","tag-waves","tag-western-sandpiper"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-mia-mcpherson-9446.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1jv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2186,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/04\/10\/shorebirds-spotted-sandpipers\/","url_meta":{"origin":5053,"position":0},"title":"Shorebirds: Spotted Sandpipers","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Spotted Sandpipers are fun to watch as they walk along the shoreline as they teeter, bob and bounce their rear ends up and down.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spotted Sandpiper perched on oysters in some rip rap at Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-perched-oysters-mia-mcpherson-florida-4707.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-perched-oysters-mia-mcpherson-florida-4707.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-perched-oysters-mia-mcpherson-florida-4707.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-perched-oysters-mia-mcpherson-florida-4707.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":150461,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/07\/18\/spring-spotted-sandpiper-in-breeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":5053,"position":1},"title":"Spring Spotted Sandpiper In Breeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in May I was delighted to photograph this fluffed-up Spotted Sandpiper in breeding plumage while I was near the water at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spotted Sandpiper in breeding plumage at Sequoyah NWR, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-1103.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-1103.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-1103.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-breeding-plumage-mia-mcpherson-1103.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23728,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/05\/13\/western-sandpiper-foraging-on-the-north-beach-of-fort-de-soto\/","url_meta":{"origin":5053,"position":2},"title":"Western Sandpiper Foraging on the North Beach of Fort De Soto","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Western Sandpiper foraging on the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2069.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2069.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2069.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/western-sandpiper-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2069.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9028,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/29\/spots-before-my-eyes-spotted-sandpipers-that-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":5053,"position":3},"title":"Spots Before My Eyes &#8211; Spotted Sandpipers That Is","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"So I finally have images of the breeding plumage of this small shorebird that show the spots that gave this bird the name Spotted Sandpiper!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nonbreeding Spotted Sandpiper in Florida. Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-nonbreeding-florida-mia-mcpherson-8383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-nonbreeding-florida-mia-mcpherson-8383.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-nonbreeding-florida-mia-mcpherson-8383.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-nonbreeding-florida-mia-mcpherson-8383.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":87112,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/05\/08\/my-first-of-season-spotted-sandpiper-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":5053,"position":4},"title":"My First Of Season Spotted Sandpiper Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I took my first of season Spotted Sandpiper photos yesterday morning high in the Wasatch Mountains as I sat in my Jeep next to a creek.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling adult Spotted Sandpiper, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-adult-stump-calling-mia-mcpherson-4590.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-adult-stump-calling-mia-mcpherson-4590.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-adult-stump-calling-mia-mcpherson-4590.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-adult-stump-calling-mia-mcpherson-4590.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55570,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/01\/07\/spotted-sandpiper-on-the-gulf-coast-thinking-back-on-warmer-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":5053,"position":5},"title":"Spotted Sandpiper On The Gulf Coast &#8211; Thinking Back On Warmer Days","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning I'm thinking back on warmer days where I took photos of Spotted Sandpipers on the Gulf Coast as they scurried among those oyster beds looking for food and somehow I feel just a little bit warmer looking at this photo and the howling wind doesn't seem quite so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spotted Sandpiper on an exposed oyster bed, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-oysters-mia-mcpherson-4710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-oysters-mia-mcpherson-4710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-oysters-mia-mcpherson-4710.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/spotted-sandpiper-oysters-mia-mcpherson-4710.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}