{"id":5417,"date":"2012-07-29T13:12:45","date_gmt":"2012-07-29T19:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5417"},"modified":"2025-11-11T14:08:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:08:48","slug":"willets-in-beaverhead-county-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/07\/29\/willets-in-beaverhead-county-montana\/","title":{"rendered":"Willets in Beaverhead County, Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

These images were taken at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> in southwestern Montana. There were two juvenile Willets plus an adult on the shoreline of the Lower Lake that delighted me.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Willets on a lake shore – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a fondness for shorebirds because\u00a0their beauty and abundance\u00a0were\u00a0part of the reason\u00a0why I got hooked (addicted) to bird photography while I lived in Florida and I’m glad that I still get to see and photograph them in the western U.S.<\/p>\n

\"WilletWillet adult with a headturn in Montana – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

These Willets were very relaxed, this juvenile often tucked its bill under the feathers on its back and dozed, while the adult took a very long bath.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Willet wing lift – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The juvenile didn’t bathe but it would fluff up and stretch now and then which showed off the striking pattern of the underside of the wings.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Willet stretching a wing – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 328mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And the top of the wing too.<\/p>\n

\"CallingCalling adult Willet at Red Rock Lakes – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x Tc at 357mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The adult Willet called several times while I was photographing the birds. After having seen a Peregrine Falcon in the area I wondered if the adult might have spotted the falcon but it soon went back to bathing and foraging along the shoreline.<\/p>\n

\"BathingBathing adult Willet – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

What can I say about this image of the adult Willet? I LOVE those ripples!<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Willet in the shallows\u00a0– Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The juvenile Willet’s plumage was soft and beautiful. I like how well this image shows it off.<\/p>\n

It won’t be all that long before the Willets will begin their migration south but I know that next spring they will be back again to delight me.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Willet photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These images were taken at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana. There were two juvenile Willets plus an adult on the shoreline of the lower lake that delighted me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":163526,"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":[1513,27,12,608,308],"tags":[4004,4373,4072,4067,4071,5178,11483,11484,11385,1053,274,3964,2315,4168,11478,5434,3996,4047,4748,5079,4135,4193],"class_list":["post-5417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-willets","tag-adult","tag-bathing","tag-calling","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-lake","tag-lake-shore","tag-lakeshore","tag-lakeside","tag-plumage","tag-shorebirds-2","tag-stretching","tag-summer-3","tag-tringa-semipalmata","tag-tringa-semipalmata-inornata","tag-valley","tag-water","tag-willet","tag-willets","tag-wing","tag-wing-lift","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-1383.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1pn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8533,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/07\/juvenile-willet-looking-for-prey\/","url_meta":{"origin":5417,"position":0},"title":"Juvenile Willet looking for prey","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It won't be long before I start seeing juvenile Willets that are about the size of the one pictured here.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Willet on the shore of the Lower Lake, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2488.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2488.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2488.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-2488.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5402,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/07\/26\/willet-boreal-bluet-damselfly\/","url_meta":{"origin":5417,"position":1},"title":"Willet and Boreal Bluet Damselfly","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On the first day of my recent trip to southwestern Montana I came across two Willets (Tringa semipalmata) near a lake shore, one was an adult and one was a juvenile.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Willet and damselfly at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the Centennial Valley of Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-damselfly-mia-mcpherson-1115.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-damselfly-mia-mcpherson-1115.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-damselfly-mia-mcpherson-1115.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/willet-juvenile-damselfly-mia-mcpherson-1115.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I dug way back into my archives for this photo of a Willet with waves rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico, taken in 2008 at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida.","rel":"","context":"In "Florida"","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Willet with waves coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/willet-gulf-of-mexico-mia-mcpherson-8966.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The question regarding this proposal is... Willet happen?","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Eastern Willet in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/willet-eastern-flying-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4377.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\/5417","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=5417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}