Semipalmated Plovers

It’s easy to confuse Semipalmated Plovers with Killdeer since they’re about the same size and have similar coloring. However, I found it so hard to believe that the Semipalmated Plover was related to the larger and very differently colored Black-Bellied Plover that I featured yesterday that I had to look up the definition of “plover” which, as it turned out, seemed vague enough to cover both species: “a short-billed gregarious wading bird, typically found by water but sometimes frequenting grassland, tundra, and mountains.” Unlike sandpipers, plovers spot food and then run to catch it, rather than probing the sand for food, a characteristic that stands out on the beach.

When Leslie first saw the Semipalmated Plover she told me she had seen a Killdeer in a with a flock of Western Sandpipers. When I heard that I started looking for Semipalmated Plovers since I had made the same mistake the first time I had spotted a Semipalmated Plover.

We ended up seeing more Semipalmated Plovers than I have ever seen in one place before, and they weren’t particularly shy.

It doesn’t hurt that they usually pause after a brief sprint before they start running again.

Once they find food, they’re positively indifferent to photographers with large lenses.