My First Sighting of Red Knots

With all of last week’s rain and this week’s family get-together it was beginning to look like I was going to miss the annual migration of Red Knots, a bird I’d never heard of until recently. To complicate matters, high tide wasn’t until 7 PM, necessitating a late trip with less than perfect lighting. Still, Leslie and I took the chance and drove to Bottle Beach Sunday. With perfect weather we could hardly miss.

Here’s my favorite shot of the Red Knots, my first sighting ever.

Two Red Knots

There were so many that it would have been impossible to miss them, particularly when they lined up like this.

Red Knots On Sand Bar

What really caught my attention, though, was the small number of Black-Bellied Plovers in the background. Even though I’ve seen them my previous two trips, I hadn’t managed to get a decent shot. I think this one is my favorite from Saturday, though it looks much better on a 24” monitor.

Black-Bellied Plover Landing

When we stopped for dinner in Westport I even managed to get a shot of this Ruddy Turnstone, another bird I’ve never seen before.

Ruddy Turnstone

Although it looks like its dramatic coloring would make it easy prey, when I moved to another place to get a better angle, I couldn’t see it at all as it blended in perfectly with the rocks, seaweed and kelp.

5 thoughts on “My First Sighting of Red Knots”

  1. How exciting to see a bird you’ve never seen before. And what wonderful pictures of them and the others.

    We saw a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker up near the cabin over the weekend. That was exciting because I hadn’t seen a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak since I was about 9 and I don’t think I ever saw a Sapsucker before at all.

  2. Well, there are so many birds that I haven’t seen that it’s not too unusual to see a new species, mauigirl. (I must have been remarkably unobservant most of my life.0

    We have had recent sightings the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak recently, but I don’t think we have the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker on this side of the Cascades.

  3. The last photo of the turnstone is pretty amazing, almost an artist was working from just a few colors and textures. Wonderful juxtapositioning (you did plan that photo, didn;t you?)

Comments are closed.