Red-Necked Phalaropes

Since it was an early tide last Wednesday, I had lots of time to bird other than just Bottle Beach. Despite considerable walking, though, I didn’t end up seeing very much. I even went to Tokeland twice because someone said there were curlews to be seen. By the time I got back, the gulls seemed to have displaced them.

So I was especially pleased when i say a pair of Red-Necked Phalaropes, though not in breeding colors, at Midway Beach. They weren’t shy and the bright sun insured that I got some of the best shots I’ve ever gotten of them.

When I first got there, the pair were swimming rapidly, apparently hunting insects. This is the way I’ve always seen them before.

Red-Necked Phalarope

I was pleasantly surprised when they started wading through the reeds, something I’d not seen before.

Red-Necked Phalarope

As a photographer, I’m as interested in the setting as I am in the subject itself and I thought the reeds provided and interesting background, nearly as interesting as the reflections in this shot:

Red-Necked Phalarope

In fact, I suspect that with a background like that I might even be tempted to go all Photoshopy and make the background as important as the Phalarope itself,

Red-Necked Phalarope

which it is, of course, because habitat is increasingly critical for all wildlife.

Birding Bottle Beach

Although it’s not unusual for a particular species like the Godwits or a flock of Red Knots to stand out when I go birding at the coast during migration, it’s the experience itself that brings me back, not the photographs of a particular bird I might get. Although it was a thrill getting a full-frame shot of a Western Sandpiper the first time,

Western Sandpipers

after you’ve gotten some great closeups it seems impossible to get a better shot, though different sunlight conditions do offer different opportunities.

Truthfully, though, I seldom take my 500 mm lens and tripod to the beach any more. Instead, I hand carry my 400mm lens so I can enjoy the total experience more.

I love the feeling of being immersed in the migration, love seeing a Black-Bellied Plover in full-breeding colors scurrying across the surf,

Plovers and Godwit

a small flock of Dowitcher’s landing feet in front of me.

Dowitchers

After an hour of trying to photograph a hectic feeding frenzy, there’s even something strangely appealing about seeing a mixed flock of Dowitchers and Western Sandpipers, briefly sleeping off a mid-morning snack a few feet from me,

Peeps Everywhere

discovering as you leave that even the way out is blocked by peeps feeding as far as the eye can see. I find myself belonging in ways I seldom do elsewhere.

Godwits at Bottle Beach

Wednesday’s trip to the coast was highlighted by the arrival of Godwits at the beach, the first time I’ve seen them at Bottle Beach and the first time I’ve ever observed them feeding. Usually I’ve photographed them standing on the docks in Tokeland, waiting for the tide to go out so they can fly off and resume feeding.

They arrived in a large flock that quickly dispersed into much smaller flocks

Godwits Landing

that moved up and down the beach.

At times they worked as groups,

Godwits feeding

catching everything to be had.

However, as another birder noted, the flock was extremely noisy, almost raucous. Some seemed downright pushy, trying to intimidate nearby godwits,

Godwits Fighting

while totally ignoring other, smaller birds foraging nearby.

It wasn’t at all unusual, though, to see a solitary godwit quietly probing,

Solitary Godwit

far from the maddening flock, seemingly caught up in self-reflection.

Birding the Washington Coast

Wednesday’s trip to the coast started off rather inauspiciously, just as my trip two weeks earlier had done. The skies were clear when I left Tacoma, but by the time I reached Elma I had a hard time seeing the road because the fog was so thick. Occasional patches of sunshine, however, gave me hope that it might actually be clear when I reached Bottle Beach.

It wasn’t to be, at least not at first. The fog was so thick when I first got there that I had a hard time seeing the water at all. Just how thick it was became clear when I heard a flock of Canada Geese at 8:45 and turned to take a quick shot:

Geese in Fog

Surprisingly, the picture wasn’t blurry, probably because it was a uniform gray and I was panning desperately as they passed just above my head. The picture is actually a tad grayer than it seemed to my eyes, but I was really surprised that I got a picture at all.

Luckily, the fog was burning off rapidly by then, and this shot of a flock of Godwits landing taken at 8:50 was clearer,

Flock of Godwits in light fog

though it still lacked color.

I ended up trashing nearly all the pictures I took the first hour because the exposure caused graininess, but by 9:32 when I took this shot of another small flight of Canada Geese

Canda Geese in Flight

the lighting was nearly ideal. coming directly over my shoulder onto the birds lining the shore.

All I had to worry about by then was blowing out the highlights in the white feathers:

Least Sandpiper

I’ve certainly seen more birds and rarer birds, but it was a great day, perhaps because birding has been so slow around here lately.