Spring brings north-bound migrations of songbirds, raptors, seabirds and shorebirds to the Pacific coast. While we have seen many flocks of seabirds flying north out at sea, they are too far away to photograph. However, walking on the beach in early spring we are often rewarded by close encounters with a variety of shorebirds in breeding plumage.
Today, a northwest wind was blowing, and most flocks of shorebirds were flying low, within a few feet of the beach. I soon realized that if I crouched down, the birds would fly closer to me. Some came with 10 feet. Most of the shorebirds kept flying, but a few stopped and let me photograph them.
Semi-palmated plovers and western sandpipers are the shorebirds in the bottom two photos. The semi-palmated plover looks like a miniature version of its relative, the killdeer, with one less black band. Migration is exhausting work, and feeding along the way is serious business, as can be seen by the plovers' bills probing the sand for prey. The top photo is a pair of Caspian terns.
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